Court case to overturn ‘fraudulent' Seán Dunne transfers played key part in US bankruptcy

Irish Times

3 days ago

Seán Dunne's
US bankruptcy trustee realised $20.9 million (€18.1 million) from the 'fraudulent conveyance' claim he took in the US courts while overseeing the estate of the high-profile Irish property developer, according to a new document filed to a court in Connecticut.
With the gross receipts realised by Richard Coan coming to $27.5 million, the successful case taken against Mr Dunne in the US courts accounted for a large proportion of what was available for his unfortunate creditors.
Mr Coan has now filed his final report to the bankruptcy court in Connecticut at the end of a process that began in 2013 and involved legal and other manoeuvres on both sides of the Atlantic as Mr Dunne ducked and dived with not one but two bankruptcies involving hundreds of millions of euro in debts to banks.
His assets, as Mr Coan's final report indicates, were a lot more modest than those debts, so much so that the €14 million secured in 2013 from the sale of Walford, a house on Shrewsbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, that Mr Dunne and his then wife,
Gayle Killilea
, bought for €58 million eight years earlier, was a big part of what remained of his wealth.
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In 2019, a jury in the district court in Connecticut found in favour of Mr Coan, who took a case alleging Mr Dunne had fraudulently transferred assets worth millions of dollars to Ms Killilea. Among the transfers complained of was proceeds from the sale of Walford.
To fund the lawyers who acted for the US trustee in his battles with Mr Dunne,
Nama
and
Ulster Bank
issued non-interest bearing loans to pay the legal fees.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, where Mr Dunne's bankruptcy status has been extended to 2028 due to his non-cooperation with the Official Assignee, a series of legal proceedings continues. Mr Dunne has taken a number of so far unsuccessful cases against those overseeing his bankruptcy estate.
The final report now filed by Mr Coan with the Connecticut court includes detailed records on recent legal bills amassed by law firm Cohn Birnbaum & Shea, engaged by Mr Coan in 2022, to work with him on the Dunne case.
Fees charged by the firm amounted to between $355 and $475 an hour for a partner, and $210 to $250 for a paralegal. Records show many phone calls, reviews and email communications, and the times spent on them, as the trustee's lawyers dealt with various claims.
These included claims from Ms Killilea and from Mr Dunne's first wife, Jennifer Coyle, contacts with a wide range of parties including the
Revenue Commissioners
and work on keeping abreast on what was happening in Ireland.
Discussion and analysis of the 'priority claims' of Ms Killilea and of Ms Coyle were the subject of numerous calls and reviews that continued into this year as were matters to do with claims from banks.
In the end, the priority claims agreed were $925,306 for Ms Killilea and were $1,948,764 for Ms Coyle, leaving a balance of $12.38 million. The bulk of that was shared between Nama, which got $6 million on a claim of $438 million, and Ulster Bank, which also got $6 million on its claim of $428 million.
Meanwhile, the legal wrangling continues in the High Court in Dublin.