Sean Quinn placed bets on which way Anglo Irish stock would go.
Trouble is, Sean backed the wrong horse.
Soon, he was looking at €1 billion in losses on 25% of Anglo Irish Bank stock.
So Sean cut his losses, and ended up owning 15% of the bank.
That left 10%.
Anglo made a few phone calls.
Ten guys agreed to a deal. Anglo would loan them €30million each.
They would buy the Anglo stock.
The security on the loans would be the stock.
And if the stock price fell, the bank would take the loss.
Here’s Brian Lenihan explaining it in the Dáil.
‘The department had been in communication with the regulator and the Central Bank to ensure that this matter was unwound as soon as practicable.’
‘Beyond that, I was not furnished with any information of a written character about this issue, other than it was a critical issue for the share price of the institution.’
‘Subsequently, I was advised in late July that a group of investors had invested in Anglo Irish Bank to resolve these problems and that legal advice obtained by the bank indicated that the transaction was compliant.’
