Bankrupt tycoon denies blame for bank collapse

Published on 30/07/2012 00:49

Former tycoon Sean Quinn has denied his gamble on shares in the former Anglo Irish Bank collapsed the rogue lender and Ireland’s banking system.

The bankrupt ex-billionaire disputes and suggestion that his secret buying of a 25 per cent stake in the bank led to Ireland’s €61 billion euro (£47 bn) bank bailout.

But Quinn agreed his actions helped to destabilise Anglo earlier than it would have happened.

He said: “If you’re asking me, did we have anything to do with the failure of Anglo, definitely not. As regards losing €33 billion euro (£25bn), we had zero effect on that.”

Quinn said he would not accept any responsibility for the government’s controversial bank guarantee in September 2008.

“All of the Irish banks went bankrupt and all of the banks working in Ireland, the Lloyds and Ulsters and that, they all lost a fortune in Ireland,” he said, on an interview broadcast by the Irish television channel RTE.

“The bank guarantee was needed for all of the banks…maybe Anglo was the worst of the three.”

State-owned Anglo, rebranded as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), is chasing the Quinns for €2.8 bn (£2.1bn) in debts. The family disputes €2.3bn (£1.7bn), claiming the loans were illegal.

His son, Sean junior, is serving three months in jail for contempt of court after trying to hide €500m (£391m) of property assets.

His nephew Peter Darragh Quinn was also jailed but fled to avoid imprisonment.