Sean Quinn said it was ‘unfortunate that people are expected to make up their minds, not on facts but on mistruths’
Following the publication of the controversial new book on Sean Quinn, the subject of the book issued the following open letter
An open letter to Gavin Duffy and Ian Keogh (co-authors of ‘Citizen Quinn’)
I have read your book with interest, and feel compelled to comment on a continuous theme throughout.
It is reported that there was an ongoing lack of cooperation from the management team within our Group, from my family and, most particularly, from me since 2010.
The fact is that, within three weeks of Mr McKillop arriving in the Quinn Group, I chaired a board meeting in the Slieve Russell hotel where he told the meeting he had agreed with the banks and bondholders to refinance the Group for a further five years at an interest margin on 1 per cent, subject to me leaving the board.
In the best interests of the Group, I offered my resignation immediately. However, once it had been accepted, this deal never materialised.
Subsequent to the failure of this promised deal, management and staff realised that Mr McKillop could not be trusted.
That was the only meeting that I ever attended with Mr McKillop.
The book outlines many examples of my apparent lack of cooperation, and details how we, allegedly, wouldn’t agree on interest rates, wouldn’t offer equity in the company, and sent Mr McKillop to London on ‘a fool’s errand’.
None of these allegations is true.
It also states that I called the financiers, ‘unsecured scum’, a derogatory term that I have never used.
Later in the book, the theme of non-cooperation is expanded by suggesting that Anglo/IRBC were anxious to settle our differences amicably, but that we, the family, resisted all attempts.
This again is patently untrue, and indeed, it is on the court record that we suggested mediation as a mechanism to settle this dispute.
Upon reading the book, my daughter, Aoife contacted both of you to point put these and other numerous inaccuracies.
The following day, 3rd October, she and my son-in-law, Niall McPartland, met with you, Gavin. At that time, they showed you documentation which proved categorically that key points, which established the tone of the book, are incorrect.
They were able to prove conclusively that we had, in fact, offered a very generous proposal to the banks and bondholders, including an interest rate that was more than three times that which was suggested in the book.
At the meeting, you accepted you had been misinformed, and you indicated that you would speak to your co-author, Mr Keogh, and your publisher, Penguin, and revert to them the following day.
Despite Aoife making a number of calls to you since, she has not heard from you, which is very disappointing, and has left me in a situation where I have been obliged to write this letter.
I note that you advised, ‘The Anglo Celt’ that the principle behind the book was to, present the facts, nothing but the facts and let people make up their minds after that’.
It is unfortunate that people are expected to make up their minds, not on facts but on mistruths.
Your book has told our story from the point of view of those who took over and destroyed our companies and (from the point of view of) those who have a vested interest in blackening the Quinn name.
Yours sincerely
Sean Quinn
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