Quinn, his bondholders, Anglo, the Regulator and the Minister of Finance

[PaddyJoe McGillycuddy]

I think this Times article deserves its own thread. A lot of insight here into the murky stuff that went on in Anglo:

On April 24 2008, Brian Cowen sat down for a private dinner at Heritage House, Anglo Irish Bank’s elegant Georgian headquarters on St Stephen’s Green. Seated around the table was the bank’s board including the chairman Sean FitzPatrick and the chief executive David Drumm.

Cowen, then minister for finance, chatted easily with the bankers. The credit crunch was in full swing. Bear Stearns had collapsed. The Irish property market had started to turn south. There was plenty to talk about.

But the ghost at this bankers’ banquet was Sean Quinn. By that time, Ireland’s richest man had built up a €2.7 billion exposure over two years building a near 28% stake in Anglo. The stake had been built privately through financial instruments known as contracts-for-difference.

At the start of 2008, Quinn, whose business interests employed 5,500 people in Ireland, was sitting on losses of €630m on his personal investment in Anglo. In the first four months of that year, Anglo’s share price was so battered, that by the time Cowen sat down to dinner with the Anglo board, Sean Quinn’s losses were close to ¤1 billion.

Sean Quinn: Teflon tycoon - Times Online

[spidermom]

T'is a multi faceted web that has been woven here....wonder will we EVER get to the crux of it...????

[He3]

T'is a multi faceted web that has been woven here....wonder will we EVER get to the crux of it...????

Spidey, it is like always arriving in time to catch the ending to the old Westerns. We only ever get to see them riding off into the sunset.

Anglo Irish Bank advanced the Quinn Group €200m in June 2008 and released it from a group guarantee given as security for €250m in previous borrowings, to prevent Ireland’s largest private company from breaching covenants with its other lenders and bondholders.

The move, known to the Financial Regulator, stopped Quinn’s bondholders from carrying out an independent report on the family’s assets outside the group. Such a report would have revealed Quinn’s €2 billion-plus exposure to Anglo’s shares.

Anglo bailed out Quinn to stop bondholder probe

[MsAnneThrope]

I think this Times article deserves its own thread. A lot of insight here into the murky stuff that went on in Anglo:

Sean Quinn: Teflon tycoon - Times Online

I missed this post and that Times article in early February. Where did the Times get all that info? A fantastic insight into what was going on. Thanks PaddyJoe (and to Powderfinger who directed me to this thread)

[civilservant]

A fantastic insight into what was going on.

Does Anglo Irish still hold these shares in the Quinn group (valued at €1.7 billion at the time)?

[Gadfly]

This would be a good time for the Minister of Finance to make a public commitment that loans which are part of a criminal investigation will not be taken on by NAMA.

As I recall the legislation was nobbled to fudge this issue.

We still end up paying for the whole lot of them, thanks to the unwarranted inclusion of AI"B" in the guarantee and the unaccountable extension of the guarantee above what was advised by Finance. But a small sign - any sign - of movement away from the default position - any stroke is a good stroke - would be welcome.

[Cael]

Anything that Sean Quinn is involved in is going to be dodgy.

[LDF]

According to Newstalk this morning the C&AG handed a report on the Financial Regulator to the Minister for Finance on December 22nd last. Despite repeated requests the report has not been published. However, the Minister is required to publish C&AG reports within 3 months of receipt. That is next Monday 22nd March.

[hammer]

It would not be in the countrys interest to publish such a report

Gathering dust on some shelf for the forseeable future.

[Dillinger]

If Nixon was alive he would be in awe of this lot.