A senior portfolio manager at NAMA has told the London High Court that Derek Quinlan continued to live a lavish lifestyle despite being a NAMA debtor.
Paul Hennigan was giving evidence on behalf of NAMA in a case brought by developer Paddy McKillen against Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay for control of three top London hotels.
Mr Hennigan said that Derek Quinlan did not have enough assets to meet his debts.
He agreed that a payment to Mr Quinlan of £500,00 sterling from the Barclay brothers may have contributed to Mr Quinlan's support for the Barclays' efforts to take control of the hotels.
Mr Hennigan said that delivering Coroin, the company which controls Claridges, the Connaught and the Berkley hotel, to the Barclay brothers had been the mechanism to protect Mr Quinlan and his family's lavish lifestyle.
NAMA subsequently transferred almost €800m of debts in the hotels to the Barclay brothers.
Mr Hennigan said NAMA had heard rumours that Derek Quinlan had been seeking side payments for the sale of some of his assets and that would have been unacceptable.
He said that NAMA regarded Mr Quinlan as seeking to promote his own interests before those of his creditors. Mr Hennigan added that Mr Quinlan had moved to Switzerland but had relocated to the UK by December 2010.
A NAMA document dated last January and read out in court asked Mr Quinlan to explain the purchase of a new Range Rover. Mr Hennigan said that it was NAMA's view that it was unacceptable that Mr Quinlan's expenditure should be subsidised by the Irish taxpayer.
Paul Henningan told the court that it was incredible that Coroin, the company which controlled the three top London hotels, didn't have any loan facilities and that the shareholders were allowing it to go into insolvency because they couldn't agree their own position.
He said that NAMA took the position that they were dealing with what he described as a dysfunctional group of shareholders. Mr. Hennigan said he was instructed to sell equity in the company to Malaysian investors.
In cross examination counsel for Paddy McKillen suggested to Mr. Hennigan that NAMA had made it very difficult for Coroin to get refinancing and that was what led the Barclay brothers to take control of the hotels. Paul Hennigan replied that he didn't care who took over control of Coroin, he was just concerned about Coroin refinancing and repaying its debt.
