He’s reported to be In his 30s
The news reports on RTE, online sites etc said that four were charged. A couple of lines later it said their ages ranged from 25 to 66. I took it that they were still referring to all four but maybe those ages only apply to the three named.
Ongoing case.
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How was he not being monitored to such an extent that he could partake in a four day kidnap? And he a murder suspect presumably
?
The lunny thing was only a few hours was it not?
The case quoted is from November 2017.
They’re in dread of the they’re shite of being sued?
The battle lines were already drawn by the time Seán Quinn and his children took their seats in the boardroom of the Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) headquarters to discuss the businessman’s future with the company he founded, and over which he lost control during the 2008 global financial crash.
Quinn found it hard to conceal his anger as he explained why he had asked his son, Seán Jr, and daughters Aoife, Brenda and Colette to attend the meeting at the company’s base in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, on the morning of January 8, 2016.
Also in attendance were Freddie Walsh and Martin Maguire, two local businessmen who had supported the former tycoon after he entered bankruptcy, along with his son-in-law Stephen Kelly.
On the opposing side were the QIH executives Liam McCaffrey, Kevin Lunney and Dara O’Reilly. Ernie Fisher and John McCartin were there as representatives of QBRC, an entity which had sought to secure the business, preserve jobs and ultimately return the companies to the Quinn family. Sitting at the top of the table, Quinn set the tone for the proceedings by first announcing that he had a tape recording of a staff meeting held at the firm’s plastics manufacturing division and that he wanted to discuss it.
In truth, the two sides were already at odds. For example, Quinn had demanded the QIH directors sign over any shares they held in QIH but his requests had been met with silence. Privately, Quinn feared the shares were about to rise in value, in line with the company’s profits and plans to clear its debt. If this happened, it would thwart his plan to buy back QIH.
What follows is based on interviews and notes taken by those who attended the meeting which precipitated Quinn’s departure from QIH the following May, which is now being analysed by gardai who are investigating a campaign of sabotage waged against the company by as yet unidentified parties.
According to the notes, Quinn opened by asking McCartin to outline who owned and controlled QIH. McCartin explained that QBRC owned 11% of the equity and the management team a further 11%, which he suggested could increase by another 2.5% if they met performance targets. The remaining 78% stake was owned by the bondholders: Brigade Capital, Contrarian Capital and Silver Point Capital.
Seán Quinn found it hard to conceal his anger as he explained why he had asked his children to attend the meetingJULIEN BEHAL/PA WIRE
The conversation turned to the issue of who was in charge and the raison d’être of QBRC. Aoife Quinn said she believed her father had been isolated in QIH and was no longer making decisions. “My father can be difficult but he is not an unreasonable man, and it appears there’s a deliberate intention by the management to isolate and exclude him,” she said.
Foremost on Quinn’s mind was not his treatment, however, but when ownership of the company would be returned to his family. He had expected to regain control of the company within two or three years of QIH’s inception in 2014, with QBRC’s help. “How could this be possible?” asked Fisher. “That is QBRC’s mandate,” Quinn pointed out.
The notes suggest the relationship between the Quinn family and the others had already broken down by the time they met. Aoife Quinn said she never thought she would be “sitting here fighting with the management team”. McCaffrey replied that he had never thought he would be asked by the police to check his personal security — a reference to the ongoing attacks on the company.
According to the notes, Lunney and Fisher thought QBRC had been established to secure the business and jobs; not simply to secure it for Quinn and his family. McCartin appears to have been more circumspect, however. He said the QBRC mandate “could not state the objective was Quinn family ownership”, as the bond-holders had not wanted them involved.
Aoife Quinn (middle) said she believed her father had been isolated in QIH and was no longer making decisionsCOLLINS COURTS
Quinn Jr then suggested the directors faced a conflict of interest. If QBRC was established to secure the assets for the Quinn family, he argued, did they face a conflict of interest as they had to also represent the bondholders?
A conversation took place about how the company should be run in terms of its margins and profitability. The problem, as he saw it, was exacerbated by the directors holding shares in the firm.
The notes quote McCaffrey as saying Quinn had “run this business for 40 years and done a great job” but simply could not adapt to the new regime and new leadership. “Seán is not happy and he is very determined,” said McCaffrey.
“That’s an assumption that people might make,” said Quinn, denying the suggestion that he could not adapt.
Quinn said he believed QIH needed to invest substantially more in the firm and make plans to source raw materials as he believed supplies were running out.
What happened next is central to the troubles now facing QIH. Another row broke out over the running of the company and the blockading of an access road to a wind farm. McCaffrey suggested that this could be interpreted as a move to cause disruption to the wind farm that Quinn once owned on Slieve Rushen. Shortly before the meeting, an access road to the wind farm had been blocked using boulders.
Someone asked whether it was QIH that had removed the boulders, and was told it was not.
The conversation then returned to the issue of how the company should be run. Quinn believed it would soon run out of raw materials, something he felt compelled to tell the bondholders, because if true it would reduce QIH’s value.
“The business will not survive the way it’s being managed,” argued Quinn, who queried the basis for the firm’s financial projections.
Quinn soon made it clear he could no longer work with McCaffrey and his executives. McCaffrey had destroyed his position, he claimed. There had been an agreement he would be “the man in charge” but this had not happened.
Towards the end of the meeting, McCaffrey asked how Quinn and his family planned to acquire the business, given that it was owned by American investors. Quinn did not answer the question directly but his son referred back to QBRC and the reason why it had been established. “That’s why QBRC exists,” said Quinn Jr.
Though he did not ask the question directly, Quinn Jr repeatedly raised the issue of what the QIH executives and QBRC intended to do with their shares. A financial adviser had asked him to see if there was anything in it for the management team to grow the business, given that they and QBRC each owned 11% of the equity.
Quinn Jr asked how much QIH might be worth in the future. This was dependent on currency and oil prices, McCaffrey told him, adding: “€8m-€9m of profit is dependent on these factors alone.”
At the time, Quinn was employed as a consultant to QIH, earning a salary of €500,000 a year, but the notes suggest he spoke as if he were the true owner. “The company is in a mess, machines are being destroyed, employees are asleep on the job, there is no morale within the company, and employees are unhappy. It will be hard to fix,” Quinn said from the top of the table. “The business will fail with the way it is being managed.”
The remarks provoked a sharp response. In normal circumstances, McCaffrey said, the profits which the company had already delivered would have allowed the management team to look for a higher equity stake in the business from the American bondholders, but he “was not going to do this with bullets flying at him”.
O’Reilly asked the businessman if he had anything to bring to the table for future investors to get on board.
Quinn responded that the management team had “no right” to take the business from him, and he asked McCaffrey and O’Reilly to resign. Quinn also wanted the directors of QBRC to resign because of what he viewed as a conflict of interest. Walsh asked Quinn if the relationship could be mended but Quinn said no. Fisher asked if this was a “blanket no”, and Quinn confirmed it was. He said he had not fallen out with McCaffrey and his colleagues overnight. They had treated him in a “disgraceful” manner.
McCartin sought clarification as to whether he really wanted the three executives out. Quinn said he did, which prompted McCaffrey to ask what he thought the company’s owners would do. In his forthright manner, Quinn insisted he was “not shown respect”, and said the relationship with management was now irreparable.
According to those present, Maguire then asked Quinn whether he was adamant the executives must leave. He recorded Quinn as saying yes. He added that he did not want to “embarrass anyone and was happy to go along with whatever solution may be acceptable” to those present.
Quinn then said that he wanted to wish them well and if they could find a solution that would work for them, he would go along with it. O’Reilly asked what type of arrangement he meant, and asked where the money to pay for it would come from, but he never got a direct reply.
Five months later, QIH terminated its contract with Quinn and his son, Seán Jr. The company offered to allow him to use one of its offices but Quinn declined the offer, and instead took two cars, which the company continued to tax and insure until a few weeks ago.
None of the parties present at the meeting said they wished to comment when contacted by The Sunday Times but QIH confirmed it had now provided copies of contemporaneous notes taken by one of its directors to the gardai.
“Given requests at that meeting for the directors to resign and subsequent third-party threats and demands for the directors’ resignation, those notes were subsequently shared with the gardai as part of their ongoing investigation,” it said.
“It is a matter of public record that Seán Quinn’s perspective on QIH’s ownership, objectives, strategy for the business and rationale for a consultancy agreement are, and were, at odds with QIH, QBRC and the investor group, and that considerable efforts were made to resolve those differences to no avail.
“The meeting in January 2016 was one of a host of meetings and engagements and correspondence designed to accommodate engagement with the family which ultimately failed.”
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Sounds like they fucked him over alright
Should have fucked him over a cliff tbh.
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How do you take that from it? He drove the company over the cliff and expected to waltz back in.
Family sound as charming as the head honcho
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+1
The sense of entitlement off the cunts. Get the business back I lost and then hand it right over to me.
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Meanwhile every driver paying for his failings via an insurance levy for years
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Fucker thinks he is a the godfather or something. What a cunt.
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Ah jesus, that photo is as auld as the hills.
It was the function in 2009.
The 50 year anniversary of an event 60 years ago should have been the giveaway
Forgive me.
I’m still half cut.
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So unlike you
Era I’m only young once