When one of Ireland’s most famous properties, the Walford Estate, was conveyed away fraudulently by Sean Dunne, his Irish creditors and the US Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee, represented by Thomas H. Curran, litigated for over a decade, seeking to recover the assets, including the Walford Estate, siphoned off by Dunne. His deceptive scheme was exposed when he filed for bankruptcy in the U.S., attempting to protect millions of euros of assets by fraudulently transferring them to his wife, and her entities, in Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, violating the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, Irish law, and Connecticut State law.
Following the decline of the Irish real estate market, Dunne and his former spouse Killilea escaped to Connecticut, abandoning his Irish creditors to whom he owed nearly a billion euros in debt. The Irish bank restructuring agency known as NAMA investigated Dunne and discovered what had been happening and commenced a civil suit against Dunne and Killilea in Connecticut state court, ultimately causing Dunne to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2013. Dunne’s endeavors to hinder, delay, and defraud his creditors under 11 U.S.C. §548(a)(1) were significant, complicated and longstanding. At the Trial of fraudulent transfer case, Attorney Curran convinced the jury through nearly five weeks of meticulous presentation of evidence that Dunne intentionally defrauded his creditors to their significant detriment. Attorney Curran pursued the case and its critical witnesses and documentation across several countries and continents, including the High Courts of Ireland, South Africa, and England. He ultimately secured a more than $21 million jury verdict in favor of his client.
“In high-stakes, complex cases such as this one, enforcing rights and recovering the assets is equally challenging. It demands tenacity and creativity to fully explore the business and financial affairs of debtors, their constellation of companies, and their insiders,” reflects Thomas H. Curran.
You can read the full article at: https://www.mondaq.com/uk/insolvencybankruptcy/1281184/how-to-recover-debt-and-assests-in-the-most-complex-and-high-stakes-cases