Former Irish billionaire Sean Quinn declared bankrupt

Former Irish billionaire Sean Quinn, who was once listed among some of the world’s richest people, has now been declared bankrupt by the country’s High Court, after suffering a number of setbacks during the financial crisis.

The declaration comes nearly a year after Anglo Irish Bank took control of Quinn’s assets, after being given the go-ahead by the Irish Government. Those assets included the Quinn Group, which covered 13 separate businesses in industries such as manufacturing, insurance and commercial property before it was split.

A bankruptcy petition was brought against Quinn by Irish Bank Resolution Corp, formerly Anglo Irish Bank which changed its name after becoming state-owned in 2009. The bank estimates Quinn owes it around $2.9 billion euros.

Quinn’s fortune was estimated to be about $US6 billion around the time of the financial crisis, setting him up as Ireland’s richest man.

According to the Financial Times, Quinn was ordered by Justice Elizabeth Dunne to receive documents from a bankruptcy official, who will now need to get Quinn’s affairs in order.

This order comes just days after a Belfast court overturned a voluntary bankruptcy ruling for Quinn. The court noted that Quinn mostly did business in the Republic of Ireland, not in Northern Ireland, where bankruptcy laws are less harsh.

In a statement provided to BusinessWeek, IBRC said it did not have a vendetta against Quinn – as alleged by Quinn – and confirmed that it had received personal guarantees of two billion euros.

“The bank’s singular focus is to recover as much as possible from the remaining assets over which the bank has legal security,” it said. “It is this singular focus that is in the best interests of the state.”

Quinn said Anglo had achieved its goal of “ensuring that I will never create another job”.

Quinn originally began his business by making building products, expanding in the 1990s to acquire property in hotels, pubs and retail shops. During the property boom, business soared, and he used money borrowed from Anglo Irish to acquire shares in the bank itself.

However, when Anglo Irish was nationalised in 2009 and an economic crash occurred, Quinn owed billions.

“Our mistake was to place an over-reliance on the Irish banking system and the many predictions for continued sustained growth in the Irish economy, from some of the country’s leading financial services experts,” Quinn said last year.