Quinn family: 'Real perpetrators walking free'
The billionaire Quinn family hit back after Sean Quinn's son and nephew were handed jail sentences over an asset-stripping plot, saying the “real perpetrators” continued to walk free.
Peter Darragh Quinn and his cousin Sean Quinn Junior were each sentenced to three months for trying to hide a €500m property empire from the former Anglo Irish Bank.
Quinn senior, 65, once Ireland’s richest man, was also found guilty of the offence by the High Court in Dublin three weeks ago but was spared punishment for now to give him time to comply with court orders and unravel the moves that carved up the family’s international property empire.
Sean Quinn Junior began his sentence on Friday for contempt. He will serve his three-month jail sentence in the low-security training unit of Mountjoy Jail. A warrant has been issued for Peter Darragh Quinn's arrest, after he failed to appear in court.
The Quinn family statement to RTE said: “Ireland today is imprisoning people who have been defrauded of millions by banks whom they have never met or never borrowed a penny from, while the real perpetrators continue to walk free.”
Quinn senior clutched a handkerchief and bowed his head as the High Court ordered his son to be locked up.
The arrest of his nephew was ordered after he failed to turn up for the hearing, leaving a message that he was sick.
Quinn senior refused to comment on the jail terms as he left the Four Courts in Dublin and told reporters: “Have a good weekend.”
The one-time industry, insurance and property tycoon’s doomed gambles on Anglo have lumbered the family with a €2.8bn debt and a jailed son.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne told the men their contempt of court had been outrageous and that she was unhappy with their lack of co-operation.
Sean Quinn avoided jail but must co-operate with the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation within three months.
Sean jnr will serve out the remainder of his sentence at the training unit of Mountjoy prison.
It is a semi-open low security facility.
He and Peter Darragh Quinn will be jailed until the contempt of court in breaching an order not to put €500m euro of overseas property assets beyond the reach of the former Anglo Irish bank is purged.
