“Anglo was not just a bad bank, it was the worst bank,” Bernard Dunleavy SC said
The transactions arose out of a fall in the price of Anglo shares in 2007 when the bank advanced funds toThose “contracts for difference” involved an agreement to exchange the difference between the current and future price of shares in Anglo. One portion of those was purchased by a group of investors known as the “Maple Ten” and the rest by the Quinn Group. The Quinn shares were transferred to six Quinn-owned Cypriot companies which ultimately received €498 million from Anglo.The children’s core claim is that the various securities provided by them are invalid on grounds including undue influence, “unconscionable bargain”, negligence and breach of duty by the bank to them , especially to advise them.
By summer 2007, when Anglo’s share price peaked, Bazzley was investing almost exclusively in Anglo and Sean Quinn Snr eventually built up a 24 per cent stake in the bank To keep the money flowing, Anglo needed security. Sean Quinn Snr could not provide it and he arranged for his children to do that, counsel said. When “the jib was up” and Mr Quinn was forced to unwind the CFDs, he also arranged for the children to provide guarantees.