Bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn snr had sworn his family were not involved in a controversial contract providing for a US$500,000 payment to a Ukranian woman, but the Quinns had arranged for "huge" multi-million termination payments for themselves under similar contracts, the Supreme Court was told today.
Seán Quinn jnr had told the High Court the employment contracts could not be retrieved but a bank-appointed administrator to a Russian company in the family's international property group had recently retrieved them from a deliberately smashed computer in the company's premises in Russia, Paul Gallagher SC said.
Seán Quinn jnr was also head of a Russian company in March 2012, at the time of High Court contempt proceedings against him, his father and cousin Peter Darragh Quinn, in which the Quinns daid they had lost control of that and other companies, counsel said.
The Supreme Court should take all these matters into account or else it would be dealing with Seán Quinn jnr's appeal against being jailed on a basis that was "absolutely and utterly false", counsel said.
Mr Gallagher, for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, was continuing his arguments opposing the appeal by Seán Quinn jnr against a High Court decision jailing him following a finding he was in contempt of court orders of June and July 2011 restraining the stripping of assets valued at up to €430 million in the IPG to put them beyond the bank's reach.
The process leading to the jailing decision was fair and involved "no substantial injustice", counsel said.
The making of false statements by the Quinns in the HIgh Court proceedings should also be taken into account by the Supreme Court in considering whether that jailing decision should be upheld, he added.
In opposing the appeal, the bank claims it has undisputed evidence that, to remove monies from the IPG companies, the Quinns engaged in a "deliberate and complex fraud" of those companies which continued after court orders restraining asset stripping were made in summer 2011.
