Belfast Judge Blocks Bankruptcy in Northern Ireland

A judge in Belfast on Tuesday rejected the attempt by Sean Quinn, once considered Ireland’s richest man, to declare bankruptcy in Northern Ireland rather than across the border in his home country, where terms are considerably tougher.

Mr. Quinn, 65, had been accused of “bankruptcy tourism” by creditors seeking to collect almost €3 billion, or $3.8 billion.

Mr. Quinn, whose family has owned a farm in Northern Ireland for nearly five generations, now faces the prospect of declaring bankruptcy in the Republic of Ireland, where rigid rules could prevent him from getting back in business for up to 12 years, as opposed to 12 months in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, had challenged his bankruptcy application in Northern Ireland, arguing that the real center of his interests was his mansion in County Cavan across the border in the Republic of Ireland.

The High Court judge on the case in Northern Ireland, Donal Deeney, annulled Mr. Quinn’s bankruptcy declaration Tuesday morning. The bank had raised doubts about a lease submitted as evidence of Mr. Quinn’s office base in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, contending that it was backdated.

The judgment was one of several critical rulings expected this month in the struggle between Mr. Quinn and Anglo Irish
, which was nationalized in 2009.

Mr. Quinn’s international conglomerate of cement factories, luxury hotels, pubs and wind farms collapsed in the last two years after he placed huge bets on financial derivatives — which were known as contracts for difference — to speculate on the value of Anglo Irish shares.

Along with the bankruptcy case, the bank is in involved in litigation in other countries to take control of property owned by the Quinn family in Russia, Ukraine and India.

A Cypriot judge is expected to deliver a verdict this month in a clash over a series of offshore companies claiming enormous debts against the properties valued in total at more than €500 million.

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