Former billionaire Sean Quinn files for bankruptcy

Former billionaire businessman Sean Quinn today filed for bankruptcy in Belfast.

It is a spectacular fall from grace for the man reportedly worth €4.7billion just three years ago.

Quinn, who built up his huge wealth through his various construction companies, hotels and insurance business, lost it all when he got caught up deep in Anglo Irish Bank and it is the enormous debts he owes the bandit bank that finally forced him to declare himself stony broke.

However, Quinn disputes these debts in a very long statement issued today.

“I have done absolutely everything in my power to avoid taking this drastic decision. The vast majority of debt that Anglo maintains is owed is strenuously disputed,” he said.

“However, I cannot now pay those loans which are due, following Anglo taking control of the Quinn Group of companies, which I and a loyal team spent a lifetime building, I find myself left with no other alternative.

“I worked tirelessly to find a solution to the problems, which arose from the ill-fated investments in Anglo.

“Anglo, and more recently the Irish Government, are intent on making scapegoats of my family and I. Anglo has consistently ignored its own wrongdoing in affairs.”

Quinn also feels the way he has been harshly treated by the media, perhaps explaining why he chose the day that we swear in a new President and play our most important football match in years to release the news to overstretched newsrooms.

“My family and I have been subjected to relentless negative media coverage over the past three years. I have been portrayed as a reckless gambler who bet on a bank,” he says.

“I have never sought publicity, nor have I courted the media. On the contrary, I have developed a reputation for avoiding the media glare.

“Sadly, this now seems to have worked very much to my disadvantage, especially when compared with the sophisticated and massively expensive publicity campaign operated for
and on behalf of Anglo.”

But Quinn was still clever enough to become a bankrupt over the border. He could be back in business in one year now. If he had chosen Dublin it would have been 12 years. You still got it Sean.