All language subtitles for Bankrupt.Billionaire.2023.720p.WEB.h264-SKYFiRE

[suspenseful music]

[gates squeal]

[suspenseful music]

- There's achievers in life and
there's destructors in life.

I'm one of the achievers.

What I want to be remembered
for the man that they tried

to bury and they weren't
able to bury him.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music continues]

When you drive up that
mountain road and you see

all the factories, the
windmills on the skyline,

everything is down
to the one man.

You're talking about factories
covering maybe 200 acres.

- [Ian] They had this one thing
up in Cavan and Fermanagh.

They had Quinn.

- He was on the Forbes
list of billionaires.

- [Reporter] Sean Quinn is
fighting the courts over loans

of nearly 3 billion Euro.

- [News Anchor] Businessman
Sean Quinn has been declared

bankrupt at-

- [Reporter 2] The former
billionaire Sean Quinn

has been jailed for nine
weeks for contempt of court.

- [Reporter] Vandalism,
assaults, bullets in the post.

- We will not go
quietly into the night.

Make no mistake about it.

This is a war.

- [Reporter] Kevin Lunney
is recovering in hospital,

the PSNI say his injuries
are life changing.

- [Sean] What they've
done to me is wrong.

I have made plenty of mistakes,

but I think it's
important that the Quinns

tells the true story.

[intense music]

Ah, sure.

It's hard to believe
that it's your own people

that you've worked for 20,
25 years is doing it to you.

It's just hard to believe.

I mean, it was hard to
believe they'd go and try

to take the business off
us and put me and my son

out of the business.

And it's soul destroying
and it makes no sense.

- [Reporter] 50-year-old Kevin
Lunney, who is a director

and chief operating officer
with Quinn Industrial Holdings,

was abducted, assaulted
and found two hours later.

- For years now, five
men have been subjected

to a campaign involving
vandalism, sabotage,

bullets in the post,
assaults, arson attacks.

- [Speaker] We will want to
see the security forces act

and deal with the
paymaster who is paying

for these activities
and orchestrating

this ongoing campaign
of intimidation.

- And then they turnaround
now and blame us

for being involved
in criminal activity

and abducting Kevin Lunney.

I mean, it's beyond
comprehension that
your own friends

and your own staff
and your own neighbors

would do it to you.

- There are a small number
of individuals involved,

paid to carry out these
tasks and we need to get

to the crux of it.

We need to get it dealt with.

And it is a law
enforcement issue.

And I am not minded
to be intimidated

by this sort of activity.

- [Sean] I would
accept that the fact

that I have been critical about
them and some of the truths

that I have told about
them would have created

a toxic climate.

If telling the truth is an
incitement to hear truth,

then I'm guilty.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music]

My father couldn't read
nor write, but he was,

he was quite clever.

And he would count
money and he would know

a good animal from a bad animal.

He was able to buy a farm
in 1950 for 2,000 pounds

and paid cash for it.

There was no telephones,
there was no television.

There was no running water.

We didn't have a car, we
didn't have a tractor.

We didn't have anything
in those early years.

The four of us
was born in there.

Myself and Peter, Miriam, and
Bernadette, the two sisters.

- [Bernie] I was the youngest.

I was the baby and spoiled.

He was the second youngest.

He was the worker, the farmer.

Wasn't interested in going
on to higher education

or education of any kind.

The sooner he got out
and made a few pound

the better for him.

He just didn't turn
up for the bus the day

he was supposed to
go to transfer exam.

He wasn't going to go that path.

- I hid in the bushes
until I seen the bus

leaving the school 'cause
I didn't want to do

the 11-plus and didn't do it.

So when I arrived
then the teacher,

she wasn't very happy
and where was I?

And when I went home, my
mother wasn't very happy,

but my father said,
leave him alone.

He'll be all right.

He'll help me with the
land, he'll be grand.

So I was the dunce that stayed
at home milking the cows.

[gentle music]

- Maybe that was the
first insight we got,

that he was his own
person and was going

to do his own thing.

The rest of us left home.

Peter would've gone to college
and would always have been

a kind of academic.

Miriam, similarly.

[gentle music]

- [Sean] I farmed
for a few years

along with my father, poorly.

And then we started to
get involved a wee bit

in small contracting
as well, making roads

for the tractor and
trailer and bought a bailer

and used to bail hay for pay.

I felt that farming
wasn't for me.

[gentle music]

There's an old
saying in farming,

I think it's a true one.

In farming, you live
poor and die rich

because the farms worth
a lot for after your day,

but you live poor.

So, I formed that
opinion very early on,

rightly or wrongly, maybe
as it turned out wrongly.

I suppose I was too greedy.

I was just looking
for cash, you know,

all the time and farming
was too slow for me.

My father took a massive
heart attack in 1967.

The week before Christmas,
the 18th of December '67,

he died.

It was a serious shock.

- Before Daddy had died,
he had sold a field of sand

or gravel, gravel probably.

And I remember Miriam and I
had been out talking to Sean

in the front street
when he says, you know,

I'm going to start this.

We kinda looked at him, he says,

"Well, look at it's like this,

if Pat Quarry could
buy it off my father

and make money off it," he says,

"why couldn't I if I've got
my own sand and gravel?"

- Well then there was McCaffrey
admitting they started

in the area as well and they
were all quite successful

and they were all good people

and they all run
good businesses.

And what they used to
do is they used to bring

the gravel to the
water by a road.

And of course, I decided I'll
bring the water to the gravel

and sunk wells, maybe
a hundred foot deep.

[gentle music]

I acquired a wee Bedford Lorry.

It cost 1,800 pounds.

The registration
number is A-I-L 8023

and that was bought
in the spring of 1973.

- And it mushroomed after that.

Mommy would've taken the phone
calls at the end of the table

and I would've gone home at
weekends and done the books

of whatever he had done
for that particular week

and it just started
from that very small,

from the kitchen table.

- I think the first year we
made 8,000 pounds in profit

and then the second year it
doubled and the third year

it doubled and it kept doubling
every year for a few years.

While the profits were very low,

it put in place a mechanism
that was gonna change my life.

The family were
popular in the area,

I mean, we played football.

- If you're looking at the
economy of the border region

in the 70s and 80s,
it's a wasteland.

He decided to set up a
business and locate it

in his own domain.

Quinn routed his
business in his locality.

He had a great sense of place.

He understood the area
and he was loyal to it.

Whether it was playing
Gaelic football,

whether it was supporting
local businesses.

He played that card and
he played it very well.

[gentle music]

- The redness of the stone
that would be very high

in the iron.

So, it's just a wee
bit of a tricky.

The whole mountains a wee bit
tricky insofar as you have

to pick out different
elements from different parts

of the quarry, you know?

My competitors, they were
just doing sand and gravel

and I thought we should
widen out beyond that.

So we started making blocks
and ready mix concrete.

The gravel in our region was
very porous and weakened,

a bit soft.

So I had to start and
open a quarry then.

[energetic music]

We've been quarrying
there now for 40 years.

I opened that in the late 70s.

So, there's still material
being drawn from that

up until this day.

I remember going to
the bank man in Cavan,

Bank of Ireland.

He says, you're overdrawn
in the bank, you know that.

And I said, "Ah, we are wee
bit, but sure we're going

the right direction.

Our profits are
increasing all the time."

I looked at him and I said,

"I bought a farm
of land yesterday."

"You what," he says.

I said, "I bought a
farm of land yesterday."

He says, "Who's going
to pay for that?"

And I said, "I don't know."

So...

- [Bernie] I suppose
we were all frightened

of the expenditure
that was involved in it

because it seemed almost
an impossible dream.

Mommy's dead 13 years
but if she had seen

what was going to happen, she'd
say he's going far too fast.

He's doing far too much.

It'll never work out.

Nobody around would
ever have thought

that he was making
money, you know

because he was just
so relaxed about,

he was still very much
part of the community.

He was still out in the
football field every evening.

[gentle music]

- [Bryan] When I was very
small at midnight mass,

it was the custom that you
would put a candle in the window

so that if you looked
up at the mountain side,

you would see all
the houses lit up.

But as the years
went by, one by one,

the candles and the
lights went out.

That was it and the
mountain was in darkness.

There was a constant,
constant drain of immigration.

A whole generation
that had gone away

because there was
simply no work at all.

And an old man said to me,
when Sean Quinn was going well,

he said Quinn put
the lights back on,

on the mountain side.

- I never saw a mistake
to running a business.

I never saw, I never
thought it was difficult

running a business.

Always came easy to me.

[energetic music]

'83 we bought the first pub.

With the five children
coming along and that,

I suppose I always
wanted to see that they

would all have their own.

And I know that in
a lot of businesses,

family rows can have a major
effect on the business,

second or third generation.

But having four girls as well,

I thought that pubs might
suit them better than quarries

or cement factories
and stuff like that.

It was never my idea to go
round Ireland or England

or whatever it was and open
20, 30, 40, 50 quarries,

because quarries are
very hard to manage.

We bought the pub in Dublin.

It was the year of
pub, I think in Dublin

at that time in '83.

And then of course we
followed up by more,

I think we had 12 pubs in Dublin

over the following 10 years.

And they turned out
to be a great success.

- [Simon] Here was
the simple businessman

who'd come to Dublin to
go and watch GAA games

in Crow Park and see these
pubs like the Cat and Cage

and Drumcondra throwing off cash

and the amount of people
spending money in these bars.

And he was a very
practical businessman.

He said, I need
to get in on this.

This is obviously a
very good business.

And I think there was
an admiration in Dublin

that he was someone to watch.

[energetic music]

- [Sean] Back in the mid 80s,
cement was very hard to get

and all of the quarries
were on allocation.

So you had to order it a
couple of days in advance

and you make it 50 or
60% of what you want,

what you needed to get.

And we were meeting one
day in the Longford Arms

in Longford, and we
were all talking,

where can we get cement?

And I didn't even know
what cement was made of.

And I said to Bertie Hand
who was sitting beside me

and I said to Bertie, "What
is cement made of Bertie?"

And he says, "It's made
of stone and shite."

And I said, "We have
stone and shite."

- He built his business
through a combination

of guts, gravel,
granite, and genius.

- [Denzil] The reputation
for the business did spread

throughout the
county and it was,

there was very much a presence.

There was very
much an awareness.

And Sean Quinn became Quinn.

- Business creates business.

He created an ecosystem that
allowed people who would

otherwise not have
been able to get a job,

to get a job, to set up
businesses because they knew

that the plants and the
machineries would turn off

business and revenues
to allow them to thrive.

And I think that's why he
had such a level of loyalty

from that area.

They had this one thing
up in Cavan and Fermanagh.

They had Quinn.

[ground explodes]

- [Reporter] There's a
tile factory that produces

5 million tiles per year.

A block making plant
where the output

is 8 million blocks per year.

A new cement plant.

This vast empire is
owned by one man.

♪ Not like anybody
else from here ♪

♪ Not like anybody else

♪ I like you I like
you I like you ♪

- Obviously he'd have a
lot of these moves made

before we would even know that
he was thinking about them.

But I remember he
said that, you know,

people were making
a lot more money.

They were building
better houses,

but there were no leisure
facilities for them in the area.

- I got a lot of
satisfaction outta building

the Slieve Russell and
bringing thousands of people in

every week in and
hospitality in a community

that I was born and reared in.

♪ Like anybody else round here

- Just was a whole new aspect
to life for us in Derrylin.

You could go in the evening
and after work and you could

bring your children,
your families.

It was, it was wonderful.

♪ Like anybody else

- '89, we opened the
first cement factory,

in '99, we opened
the second one.

10 years later.

A new factory made
three times the amount,

so we tripled the size.

- [Reporter] Tonight,
I'm in the border village

of Ballyconnell in county Cavan.

Behind me, the most modern
cement factory in Europe,

which when it goes
into production in
just a few weeks time

from this quiet corner of
Ireland will be capable

of producing almost 40% of the
country's total cement needs.

- I can see the
cement to some extent,

but a glass factory, that
was completely off the radar,

wasn't it?

- We built two glass factories
in the space of five,

six years and they
cost 600 million.

- [Reporter] Do you
put a lot of thought

into your investments before
you make your final decision?

Or do you move by instinct
a lot at the time?

- Mainly by instinct.

If I see something good
and I like it, I buy it.

[ground explodes]

- So he says, "What if we
have to make an urgent claim?"

Quinn Direct.

- [Announcer] Providing
you with the answers.

- [Gavin] He had this massive
fleet of trucks on the road

and he said, "I'm paying
a fortune for insurance

on my trucks, I'm just
gonna do it myself."

Like building the cement plant,

no experience of insurance,

no experience of
financial services.

And he launched
insurance company.

- So she goes-

- Quinn Direct was the best
company ever I started.

Without any shadow of
doubt better than glass,

better than cement,
better than anything.

What made Quinn successful
was my knowledge

of the industry
before I went into it.

I would have three or 400
vehicles around the place

and we were paying
a very high premium,

millions of pounds
a year of premium.

The problem was very simple.

If somebody is injured,
that would go from one desk

to another for
two or three year.

We knew that every
week, every month,

every year that a claim went on

it got more and more expensive.

So the trick was,
you have fast track,

so we call it our fast track,

you would try to get rid
that in the first two weeks.

Give them whatever money
they're entitled to, move on.

People love that.

And we could reduce the
premium significantly.

- When he bought the Cat
and Cage pub in Dublin,

he said you would buy the beer
from Diageo or from Heineken

or from whoever on credit
30 or 60 or 90 days credit.

And then everyone would
come in on Saturday night

and buy their beer and
pay you for it, you know.

So the money came in and
it's in your bank account

and you have it.

It's really incredible,
incredible cash flow business.

Insurance was like
that on steroids.

- I mean that's where
this sort of small fortune

turned into a big fortune.

- Quinn Direct was
making 200 million pounds

a year of profit.

Quinn Direct was making so
much profit that the regulator

in writing would've given us,
allowed us for the five years

prior to the crash to take
out 800 million pounds

of dividends.

It was so profitable.

It was unreal.

- You can see the driving
force here at work

and the driving force is greed.

- So I suppose we were
making a lot of money

and the question
had to be asked was,

"What do we do with this money?"

[gentle music]

- There is a change
in Sean Quinn in 2005.

All of the trappings
of a billionaire

suddenly start to emerge.

The mansion overlooking
the Slieve of Russell,

the private jet,
the trophy assets.

- He bought the Belfry for
a massive, you know, 130,

I think 135, 136 million pounds.

That was where it
started to get a bit,

for me as a business reporter,
it was never really clear.

Did Sean Quinn buy this?

Did the Quinn Group buy this?

Did Quinn Insurance buy this?

- And what he wants to
do is to create something

unparalleled in Irish
business history.

He wants to create a
family of billionaires.

- At this point, the
five children already
owned the group.

They owned the
shares in the group,

but these were
private investment
portfolios that started

to be built up for the children.

There was very little,
if anything, in the names

of Sean Quinn and
his wife Patricia.

- What he wants to do is to
hand over a property portfolio

of a billion Euro, high
returning high yield property

to each of his children.

He wanted a 15% yield and to
get that, you have to go east.

[eclectic music]

- That was just the beginning
of accumulating a really

eclectic portfolio of
really valuable properties.

- [Ian] And it's all been
announced that the Quinn Group

have bought this, the Quinn
group have bought that,

and the Quinn logo, the
Q was put up outside

all of these things.

The Quinn Group didn't
own any of them.

They were all bought
for the family members.

[crowd applauds]

[group chatters]

- Did these boys bring
any whiskey with them?

- They did.

[group chatters]

[group laughs]

- Now, he was game before.
- Was he?

- [Sean] I'd been a card player
for a long number of years

and then I didn't
play any cards maybe

for 20, 25 years there.

And then a couple of neighbors
that I had great time for,

but they invited me
to start to play cards

back about 15 years
ago, whatever.

And we play every Tuesday night.

- Any good ones, Jerry?

- A couple of good ones.

- The value hasn't changed.

We started playing for 50
pence games 15 years ago

and we're still playing
for 50 pence games.

- The sharp one's coming now.

- Hasn't changed Tony, has it?

- No, nothing,
nothing's changed.

- Winning those games
are very important to me.

They have to be won.

We have to, being
second is no good.

You have to win,
you have to win.

You have to win
your 50 pence games.

- Good.

- Quinn is fascinating in
that he's absolutely brilliant

at making money, but
he makes so much money

that I suppose it's what happens
to the ultra, ultra rich,

which is that money ceases
to have a connection

to the real things that
allowed you to make it

in the first place,
the real activities.

And it just becomes
almost abstract.

And then you just start
thinking about how can the money

make money?

- He diverged from his original
thinking in the early years,

which was, you
know, you work hard

and it wasn't massively about
the accumulation of wealth.

It became at some
point more conspicuous.

[gentle music]

He seemed to be
enjoying the wealth.

The house was one example,
this fabulous lakeside house

beside the Slieve Russell.

I think at nearly
15,000 square feet,

seven bedrooms, parking for
nine cars, a swimming pool.

It just didn't seem
very Sean Quinn.

The family, I mean they
didn't live lavish lifestyles.

Kids went to the normal
schools everybody goes to,

but he was certainly
always pushing for more.

- The company was being
run by Liam McCaffrey,

Dara O'Reilly and Kevin Lunney.

And there's no suggestion that
they were going to be usurped

for any top position.

But he was in the background
hatching that plan to ensure

that his children would be
fabulously wealthy on a scale

never seen in Ireland before.

[gentle music]

- Quinn Group was worth 4.3
billion and showed it was making

four, 500 million
pounds a year of profit.

Plus the property, which was 70.

Whereabout India,
Russian, and Ukraine,

we'd have had 20 properties.

So it was near or 600
billion a year of profits.

2005, there was a few new
directors came on board,

you know, when, and they
were absolutely in awe

of the sort of profit
we were making.

They just couldn't believe this,

that a small company in
the middle of nowhere down

in Derrylin could make half
a billion a year of profit.

They just couldn't believe it.

So they started asking
me, "Sean, what do
you intend to do?"

Or what way are you
gonna grow this business?

And I said, "Well, I'm a
little concerned about growing

the manufacturing
business too much

because we could lose control."

If we open too
many more factories

Derrylin gonna lose control
so I want to be careful there.

And I said, property is one we
would like to be involved in.

So what I said was, my thinking
was that we would spend

a third of our surplus
cash on manufacturing,

a third of it on property
outside of Ireland

and a third of it on
blue chip companies

in the stock market.

[gentle music]

- Now, Sean Quinn has been
playing the stock market

for years back from,
you know, the early 80s,

right through the way
he's been buying shares,

be it in futures or
ammonia stocks, whatever.

2005, he learns about a
contract for difference

and something goes,
I really like that

because it allowed him to
keep his investments secret.

- Well a contract for
difference is effectively a bet

on the movement of a share price
without you actually having

to own the share.

You put down a deposit
roughly 20% usually.

If the share price goes up,
I get the full benefit of it.

So you could make a lot
of money very quickly

in what was a rising market.

Irish stocks were
rising and if the market

is constantly rising and
you don't need to put down

the full outlay on the value
of the stock to invest in it

and to bet on it, of course
you're going to do that.

It's a no-brainer while
stocks are rising.

- It's a very complex
financial instrument.

It's a crude form of
speculative gambling.

But Sean Quinn loved it.

- So Sean Quinn was
advised by PwC, you know,

took professional advice
and on foot of that advice,

a company was set up to make
CFD investments on behalf

of Sean Quinn and
the Quinn family.

When he started, you
know, there were multiple

Irish companies that
he was investing in.

Ryanair, Paddy Power and
some of the other banks.

He did CFD trades in FBD,
which was a rival insurer

to Quinn Insurance.

Unusual, but not red flag stuff.

When that started really
to change was within,

certainly within a year,
he began to sell out

of all other CFD positions
and put all of his money

into Anglo Irish bank.

- [Simon] When the
boom hit, it required

a lot of construction.

Anglo was there to be
able to step in and say,

we'll give you a
loan, no problem.

It was all about finding
yes in a loan application.

- You know, I know of one case,

a guy with a business who
wanted to borrow 20 million Euro

and Anglo Irish said,
no, we will give you 50.

And he said, oh,
I don't want 50.

And they said, well then
we don't want the business.

- [Ian] At the time
everyone was happy.

The bank was turning
off massive profits,

its share price was
going stratospheric.

- The profits rose to more
than a billion at peak.

It was a bank that was
firing on all cylinders,

a bank on steroids.

[gentle music]

[crowd cheers]

- So at a point where I
think in 2006 there was,

which is now viewed
with some hilarity,

there was a report
that Anglo Irish Bank

was the best performing
bank in the world.

So a CFD is a bet on a share
price and Sean Quinn invested,

I think when the Anglo share
price was around 11 Euro

in his first investments.

And it went up to 15 euro.

And I think there's a point
where he could have cleared,

I think 200 million
Euro on this investment.

But he continued to bet.

[gentle music]

- Sean Quinn looked at
the Anglo Irish Bank

and saw something that
he recognized in himself.

- I had 33 successive
years in Greece in profits.

So I just hopped
over a great bank.

I thought they were doing
all the right things.

- He saw what started off
as an outlier in business,

taking on the establishment.

- And I suppose there was
a lot in common with myself

as well, you know.

They were ambitious and
they were growing fast.

- He looked at the
share price, and said,

God, that has gone
only in one direction

for the past 10 years.

- Quinn Group at that point
was really at its peak,

you know, peak production,
peak employment.

The economy was
absolutely flying.

And there was an an itch to
be scratched for Sean Quinn

in that there was masses of
money in this, in the business.

And he was looking for
somewhere to put it.

[gentle music]

- [Ian] If you look
at the wonderful logic

to Sean Quinn's business,
you start off with gravel

and you say, I'll wash it.

That's a better product.

What do you do with gravel?

Well, you can make
cement from it.

Great, we're making cement.

What do we do next?

Well, if we're building
all these houses,

why don't we put in
some glass into them?

Once we're making the
glasses for the houses,

why don't we do
bottling factories.

I have all these trucks on
the road costing me a fortune

in insurance.

What'll I do?

I'll set up an
insurance business.

It was making four, 500
million Euro a year in profits.

There is an argument,
and I do believe it,

that the next logical
progression for Quinn's business

empire was to go into banking
and to try and do in banking

what he had done in all of
the other industries to really

try and take on
the establishment.

- [Announcer] But like every
bubble, the bubble ended

and now were seeing the
downside of that bubble.

- [Reporter] Borrowers
saturated the US housing market

taking on enormous
mortgages in spite

of poor credit history.

- By 2007, you know, things
were starting to go wrong

in the global economy.

- [Reporter] The result
was that more Americans

began missing their
monthly mortgage payments.

The implications
could be profound.

- It started with the
mortgages in America,

and I just thought it
was a temporary thing.

- We had the credit crunch.

So the amount of money
available to banks

internationally really
started to contract.

The share price of Anglo
Irish Bank and other banks

started to fall back.

So, Sean Quinn had invested
at 11, 10 or 11 Euro a share

in Anglo Irish Bank had seen
them go up to 15 Euro a share

and then the share price
started to fall back.

- Once the shares in Anglo
started to come down in value,

I thought they were very
cheap because the figures were

still extraordinarily strong.

And even in 2008, they were
showing a 40 odd percent

increase in profits from 2007.

And the shares were going down
to half of what they were.

So I said, this thing
has been overdone.

And we took money
out of good share,

good companies and me
foolishly, I don't,

I'm blaming nobody else.

I took money outta
good companies

and put the money into Anglo.

- [Gavin] He had spent this
35 year career building

this really
diversified business.

And he effectively
took everything that
had been generated

by those companies and
invested it all secretly

into a bet on Anglo Irish Bank.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

- All of the dough was thrown
into Anglo because we thought

that they were going to
have the biggest recovery.

That was the plan at the time.

- There's all these rumors
swirling around town

that Sean Quinn, the
border billionaire,

the 177th richest
man in the world,

has quietly been amassing
a significant stake

in the Anglo Irish bank.

- Nobody is quite
sure of the amount.

There is rumors of 3% of 5%.

And bear in mind that
if an investor owns

a direct shareholding
of 3% in a company,

they must declare it
to the stock market.

They must let the market
know their interest

in that particular stock.

- He used loads of
different brokers

to buy Anglo CFD shares.

So nobody knew, beyond
himself, and one or two people

in Derrylin, Liam
McCaffrey and Kevin Lunney,

just how much of the
bank he actually owned.

- [Sean] I forget whether
we made contact with Anglo

or Anglo made contact with us.

Well, I know we welcomed the
meeting because at the time

Anglo shares had
started to fall.

I wanted to meet the two men
that counted, the chairman

and chief executive
to say, "Look,

we're big shareholders here.

We want to know
what the story is."

- Sean Fitzpatrick and David
Drumm had been in London

the night before in
an investor meeting.

One of these great
corporate gigs that went on

in Celtic Tiger Ireland
where as a guest speaker

they had former Soviet leader,
Mikhail Gorbachev speaking.

And from the Gorbachev meeting,
they went to meet Sean Quinn

at the Ardboyne Hotel.

- Sean Quinn is flanked
by Liam McCaffrey,

his longtime lieutenant
and the chief executive

of the Quinn Group.

David Drumm goes with Sean
Fitzpatrick, chairman and CEO.

- This share price is going,
is falling very, very fast

and we want to
know where we are.

Do we sell the shares
or is the company going

to be profitable or
what's the story?

And they said, Sean, the
company never went better.

The company's actually
flying, but we're showing 30,

40% increase in profits.

- [Ian] Sean Fitzpatrick
and David Drumm

are in salesman mode.

They're not going to go
down and say, actually,

we're really worried about
our potential exposure

to land banks in Mullingar.

In the back of their
mind, they're saying,

we think this guy
owns maybe 10, 11,

12% of the bank through CFDs.

So they had factored into
their head, it's a hefty stake.

It's not declared to the market.

And it puts him on the hook
for an awful lot of money

if the share price goes down.

But it also raises the
not unrealistic prospect

that he might be simply making
a play for the bank itself.

And then the question comes.

"How much do you own?"

"25%."

- Sean Quinn invested everything
that had been generated

into a bet on Anglo Irish Bank.

Only the sort of core
group of Sean Quinn,

Kevin Lunney and Dara
O'Reilly and Liam McCaffrey

I think had the
full picture of what

was being invested and where.

- [Sean] Other people in
the office would've known

we shouldn't have been doing it.

I suppose it just
sort of happened.

And again, maybe our
system was a bit weak

and maybe we didn't
have enough people

just looking over this thing.

And maybe I was too
dominant a factor in this.

And I suppose when I asked
it to be done, it was done.

- When it ultimately
came to light

and when it ultimately
came to, became public,

it was over 25% of Anglo
Irish Bank that was being held

in the CFD products by
Sean Quinn, the equivalent

of more than a quarter of
the trailing of the bank.

To put that in perspective,
if you had owned 29.9%

of the bank, he would've
had to make a bid

to buy the bank outright.

- I don't know if the word
shocked, right but surprised.

They'd say, "Look at Sean,
we're disappointed at the level

of your CFDs and could
we get some agreement

that you might
dispose of those?"

And I said, surely if you just
want me to dispose of those

whenever the share recovers,
I'd be more than happy

to do that.

And they seemed happy with that.

And at the time, they
seemed genuine in the fact

that the company
would grow again

and the share
price will recover.

I don't think they
were telling me lies.

I think they did believe it.

Diamonds.

[group chatters]

- [Ian] I think there was
a feeling from Sean Quinn

that they would be pleased
that he was investing

and supporting the bank and
supporting its share price.

Oh, it's okay, Sean Quinn,
one of the biggest employers

in the country with this
amazing manufacturing business

is on our side.

They immediately identified
this as a massive problem.

- He goes out.

- Yep.

Stay in Mexico
while you still can.

[group laughs]

- But they had to keep him
alive 'cause if Sean Quinn

wasn't alive, Anglo was dead.

They also say, stop buying more.

Don't increase it.

This is a big, big
play on the bank.

So they go back, they
report to the board, say,

"We've told him not
to buy anymore."

What does Sean Quinn do?

He buys more.

- [Sean] That was wrong.

I shouldn't have done that.

There's no, there was
no excuse for that.

It was stupid to increase
it at all, I accept that.

We shouldn't have
bought any more shares.

But we bought some more
shares, but not very many.

- He really believed everything
that had been said and told,

you know, about
Anglo Irish Bank.

So when the shares were falling,

he thought the shares
are cheaper now,

I'm gonna buy some more.

[group laughs]

I'm not a psychologist,
but you know,

classic sort of gambler behavior
that maybe we can recoup

some of this.

- I was confident
going home that yes,

this bank's going to be
successful and this share

is going to recover.

[intense music]

- In the early stages of 2008,

there was this kind of
frenzy in the global

financial markets.

Banks were scrambling
to get money together.

So investors were
looking at, well,

which are the most vulnerable
financial institutions.

And on St. Patrick's Day,
the market starts turning

its attention to Ireland.

- Welcome to a special St.
Patrick's Day 61 News and Sport.

The Irish market was down
with bank shares worst hit.

- St. Patrick's Day
massacre as it's called,

and share prices of banks
all over the world tanked.

[crowd shouts]

- Anglo was in the crosshairs
and the investors turned

on Anglo Irish bank.

- What we didn't know at the
time publicly was how deep

in the hole Sean
Quinn was or how deep

in the hole Anglo was.

That all had yet to play out.

But definitely thought it
was the point of no return.

The issue with CFD investment
party Sean Quinn was using

was as the share
price goes down,

you have to put up money
to cover your losses.

The brokers who had sold
Sean Quinn then began to make

what's called margin calls.

- As the share price falls,
there's an automatic call,

it clocks up on
somebody's screen.

You need to get more
money off this guy.

- A margin call is the
amount that the share price

has gone down.

And because you haven't
bought the share,

you have to fund this
every single day.

- To cover the losses
that you've made,

you need to provide us
50 million, 100 million,

200 million.

- Sean Quinn had money,
yeah, he had lots of money,

but you can only fund margin
calls outta cash for so long

and within a couple of
months he was running shy

of the reservoir of cash.

- One of the most striking
figures for me in all of this

to meet the initial
cash calls, Sean Quinn,

the Quinn family, the Quinn
Group put up 750 million Euro

of actual cash
resources from the group

to meet the initial calls.

- One of the most cash rich
reserves was the equity

that he had in Quinn Insurance.

Insurance companies are
regulated and obliged

to have certain amounts
of equity and cash

on their balance sheet.

And so he saw opportunities
dip into that to cover

some of those margin calls.

- But you can't do that
in a regulated entity.

You can't dip in to the money.

- And all this time,
Sean Quinn felt as,

this will get better soon.

- He had dipped into
the insurance company.

He had used up whatever
personal resources he could,

but at this point he has
to go to Anglo Irish Bank

and ask them for money and the
bank doesn't have a choice.

- They recognized that there
was a major problem here

and the only way to deal with
it was to lend more money

to Sean Quinn.

And they took security in
some of his properties.

- We've lost 60 million today.

We've lost 20 million today.

We've lost 100 million
today and day after day,

Anglo Irish bank would have
to give that money over.

- Talking in the order
of about 400 million

over the course of March.

Extraordinary sums of
money having to be drawn

to make these margin calls.

- Loans began to be made
through various Quinn companies

to Sean Quinn in a number
that would eventually

amount to 2.8 billion Euro.

- Nobody knows this is going on.

Most of the loans are simply
dressed up as working capital

for the Quinn Group or
property related lending.

[gentle music]

- [Interviewer] When you
started to take money out

of the insurance business in
order to to cover the CFDs,

that was the risk that you
took with that business.

- That was wrong, I
shouldn't have done that.

That was wrong.

That was, I put my hands
up completely on that.

- During that period, the bank
was working on possibilities

to try and unwind, as they
say, Sean Quinn's position

to get an investor in to
buy some of the shares.

- The trouble is the news
just keeps on getting

worse and worse.

- [Reporter] Lehman
Brothers, a 158 year old firm

filed for bankruptcy.

- [Reporter 2] The
collapse of Lehman Brothers

triggered turmoil in
markets around the globe.

- Sent the financial
markets across the world

into a tailspin.

And a lot of focus was
on Anglo Irish Bank.

Not so much because
it's funding issues,

but because there were
questions now around

just how heavily they had
lent into the property market.

- The state's looking at
this basket case of a bank

and saying, what are
we going to do with it?

- So in January, 2009, it
was announced the government

was nationalizing Anglo.

- Within the past hour, the
government has announced

that Anglo Irish Bank
is to be nationalized.

The minister, Brian Lenihan
said it would be taken

into full public ownership.

He said unacceptable
practices within the bank

had caused it serious damage.

- The shares of Anglo
would no longer be

on the stock exchange.

They would be worthless.

- And sitting up in Cavan
is Sean Quinn nursing

one of the biggest financial
losses in Irish history.

- Sean Quinn didn't bring
down Anglo Irish Bank.

Anglo Irish Bank
was doomed to fail.

You know, it was a Ponzi
scheme, it was gonna collapse.

However, Sean Quinn's not
blameless either, you know.

- [Alan] He's not the only
businessman who gambled.

A lot of the major property
developers gambled.

But there's a difference
between that kind of gambling,

which is gambling on your
judgment of what's gonna happen

to the market and gambling
on contracts for difference

when the share that you're
gambling on is tanking

when you continue
gambling in it.

It's a mentality that I think

is ultimately self-destructive.

- This gamble on Anglo
through CFDs had just gone

spectacularly, like
incredibly wrong.

The family owed 2.8 billion,

but they now owed
it to the state.

[upbeat music]

- When the government
nationalized

and took controlling
stakes of all of the banks,

they wanted to put their
own people on the boards.

Alan Dukes, a former
Fine Gael leader

and a former minister for
finance, was appointed

to the board of
Anglo Irish Bank.

- One of the things that
we made sure we kept

under the spotlight of the
board was the situation

of the largest
borrowers from the bank.

And you know, Sean Quinn
was one of the big ones.

- And he had done
for the previous 35,
40 years, I suppose,

turned out to be successful.

And any wee hiccups we
had were always ironed out

over a six, 12 month period.

And I didn't see it any
different than that.

I didn't see this
crash of 2007, 2008.

I didn't see it any
different, you know.

- After the management of
Anglo, Sean Fitzpatrick

and David Drumm had
been cleared out.

- Do you have a message for
the taxpayers, Mr. Drumm?

- They needed to bring
in bankers to run it.

Mike Ainsley, he was
Australian, he was tough

and he had done this
sort of work in Australia

and Japan and around the world.

And he came in as the
new chief executive

of Anglo Irish Bank.

He needed people who he trusted

and that means he brought
in people who he knew.

So he brought in
Richard Woodhouse.

The first time Richard
Woodhouse goes up to Cavan,

sits down with Sean Quinn
and the staff canteen,

it's all fine.

They shake hands, they
have a spot of tea,

they have a sandwich.

- I said, "Well what we can
do is we'll pay you back

this money reasonably quickly.

We'll have it all paid back
in less than 10 years."

Sure everybody knows the Quinn
Group's a huge success story.

- And they agree, oh it'll be
great, we'll work together.

We'll sort all of this out.

- Oh, he wanted to do a
deal, but he wanted to do it

on his terms and he wanted
to do it on the basis

of a financial plan that said,

if we would just lend a
further 600 million Euro

with him still in control,
that the companies

would work themselves
out of the problem.

- They weren't very
impressed with my attitude.

I certainly wasn't overly
impressed with their attitude.

So we didn't gel
that well together.

- This was a person
who had achieved

some very significant things,
but there was a piece of him

that just didn't understand
the ramifications

of what he had done.

- It never occurred to
us that anybody wrongly,

it never occurred to us that
anybody was going to take this

draconian action to try to
break up the Quinn Group,

take it away, and destroy it
and take it out of my control.

- 2009, the financial
regulator are becoming

increasingly worried
about Quinn Insurance.

They were worried about
the companies reserving,

policies, how much it was
putting aside for claims.

But they were also very
worried that assets that sat

on the Quinn balance
sheet of Quinn Insurance

had been pledged to the Quinn
group so that they could

in turn be pledged
to Anglo Irish Bank.

'Cause Anglo needed
security for all the money

it was handing over.

- We were saying there
is no guarantees given.

Guarantees are not given.

Then some, Liam McCaffrey
or somebody says,

"Oh, there is guarantees given.

Who gives them?"

"Meself and Kevin
Lunney give them.

"How does that happen?"

Mistake.

We know that it was illegal.

He can't be given a guarantee.

He can't be given
on a [indistinct].

I said, yeah, we'll
have to check that out

we'll have to blah, blah, blah.

- So he says, "What if we
have to make an urgent claim?"

"Quinn direct."

- Sean Quinn has
a different view,

but certainly the actuaries,

the government,
the central bank,

the joint administrators
have all come

to a very singular view that
the company was chronically

under reserving and as a
result was throwing off

massive profits.

But those profits weren't real.

- In 2008, at the height of
the crash and at the height

of the share dealings in Anglo,

we'd have 580 million of cash
and reserves in Quinn Direct.

Two years later, we had 1.1
billion of cash reserve.

- The regulator came to the
conclusion that Quinn Insurance

was not being properly managed.

- Sean Quinn had
to be taken out.

- As soon as they put
in the administrator,

and we were losing Quinn
Direct that did lead

to Quinn Group in trouble
because Quinn Direct

was the biggest
single contributor

to the profitability of it.

- The administration
of Quinn Insurance

affected the resources of
the rest of the Quinn Group

and therefore affected
the capacity the bank had

to make sure it got
repaid what it was owed

from the rest of
the Quinn group.

So, the two things, you know
were indissolubly linked.

- When you take a
brick out of the wall,

the wall becomes very unstable.

[gentle music]

- They took Quinn Insurance
from underneath him.

There was this assumption
that Quinn will buy his way

out of trouble.

Everyone thought Sean Quinn
is going to regain control

of the company until he didn't.

He had his opportunity to
go into court and to try

and seek the removal of
the joint administrators.

He didn't.

He had the option to put
his hand in his pocket

and write a check for a
couple hundred million Euro

to shore it up.

He didn't.

So gradually then people began
to realize that Sean Quinn

didn't have as much money
as one assumed he had.

- He proved to be absolutely
opposed to any kind

of restructuring that didn't
have him as the center of it.

So it came to the point
where we just took the view

that he couldn't be involved.

The reason for the meeting
on the 14th of April

was to talk to Sean Quinn
about a last chance agreement

we can make.

We had put a proposal to
him sometime before that,

which would've left him and
his family with a measure

of provision, but it required
him definitively to step away

from connection with the
company and just let the rest

of us get on with it.

- Oh, he, this is the peculiar
part about the whole thing,

is they were saying
that, while negotiating

that maybe get back Quinn
Direct and Alan Dukes cost,

asked me when I go up
to Dublin to meet him

in Anglo's office.

Kevin Lunney and Dara
O'Reilly came with me.

- We had no expectation
that he was going to agree,

with what we were going
to do, but it was agreed

I would put the proposal
to him and we will see

what his reaction would be.

- Duke said, "Look, we're
taking over the company."

- He's not a very
demonstrative man,

but he was obviously shocked.

He didn't say a whole lot very
quickly but he then asked,

what were the
implications of this?

Were we going to take
all of the businesses?

Were we going to take
all of the units,

all of the property assets?

To which the answer was yes.

- Duke said they we're
taken over the company

and there was people who had
gone to Derrylin this morning

as we speak, there's people
taking over, Slieve Russell

and Quinn Group, and
they're in your head office

and you two men are
gone along with,

Sean's gone and you two
boys are gone as well.

You're sacked.

Everybody's gone.

- [Interviewer] And what
did you do immediately

after that meeting?

- There was a decision made
there and then that we would try

to secure the assets that
they hadn't loaned money to.

We didn't touch anything
they had loaned money to.

Now it was a bad decision,
but that's what we decided.

It wasn't my idea to, it
wasn't that I wouldn't do it,

I would do it, but I hadn't
thought of moving the assets

that were, that they
hadn't financed.

Other people who
were smarter than I,

they thought of it and I
said, "That's a good idea."

So I supported it.

So I'm not trying
to blame anybody.

And if I'd thought of it myself,

I'd probably have proposed it,
you know, but people were on,

were on the airplanes that
evening trying to agree,

individuals that we
could move to assets

into different names
to keep them safe.

- On the 14th of April,
2011, the receivers

went into the buildings
and secured the buildings

of the Quinn
businesses in Ireland,

and they weren't coming back.

But, you know, an office block
in Russia takes a bit longer

and the ownership
is in a particular
company and maybe only

Sean Quinn and a handful of
people know where exactly

the ownership of that sits.

- [Alan] For us, this was the
beginning of the next stage

of the process.

We had finally got to a position
we thought where we could

actually control what
was going to happen

to the group of companies.

As time went by, we
found that that was more

and more problematic.

Particularly for the property
assets outside of Ireland.

We knew we were entering the
beginning of something new,

but we didn't realize at that
stage quite how difficult

it was going to be.

- I mean, it was
this whole sequence

of completely
unprecedented events.

But that was a really
stunning turn of events

for Sean Quinn.

The court cases played
out about the ownership

of the Quinn International
property group,

and the court came down
on the side of IBRC

and decided that yes, the
Quinn's had proactively

put a scheme in place
to put these properties

beyond the bank.

- [Reporter] Sean
Quinn, his son, Sean Jr.

and Peter Darragh Quinn,
were subject to court orders.

The bank tried to seize
valuable foreign assets.

It found they'd been put
beyond the reach of the bank.

- Sean Quinn's a very smart man.

He understood exactly
what he was doing.

He chose not to understand.

And there was also an
inescapable view from Sean Quinn

that he owned it all, that it
was all his, and as a result,

he could do whatever
he wanted with it.

So if it meant transferring
assets from here to there,

he was happy to do that.

- I think the lengths
to which they went to,

to put the property beyond
the reach of the banks

were extraordinary.

They were plotting
it for quite a while.

Now, it's interesting, you know,

it wasn't particularly
well thought out strategy.

It wasn't one that
was entirely foolproof

and in terms of the people
that they hired to assist him

in that strategy certainly
wouldn't have been seen

as being blue chip and
the right type of advisors

to do that kind of work.

- [Reporter] Sean Quinn
Jr. and his cousin,

Peter Darragh Quinn,
were sentenced yesterday

at the high court in Dublin

to three months in jail
after being found to be

in contempt of court.

- Contempt of court is used,
usually to focus the mind

and it's a threat that
doesn't often get invoked.

Sean Quinn Jr. got three months
and his cousin Petie Quinn

has never resurfaced in
the Republic of Ireland.

Got three months in prison.

And that was a big day.

But the day in November
when Sean Quinn Sr was found

also in contempt of court,

was just absolutely
extraordinary.

- The former billionaire
businessman Sean Quinn

has been jailed for nine
weeks for contempt of court.

- We would not have wanted
any of that to happen,

but it happened because
they set out deliberately

to put assets beyond
the reach of the bank,

to which the bank had a
perfectly good legal entitlement

as determined time and
time again by the courts.

- Look around the border if
they felt those guys in Dublin

have wrecked it all for us,
and then they're putting

our guy out of business.

It's the financial
regulator in Dublin.

It's the media in Dublin,
it's the government in Dublin,

and they don't understand
what it's like to live

in the country.

- When Elizabeth Dunne said,

we're giving him nine
weeks and he has a week

or whatever time he
needs to consider it,

what he wants to say or do.

I just stood up in
the court, I said,

"I'm going this evening."

I went to the bar along with
a couple of friends of mine,

local locals here, and
I had two pints of beer

and two or three double brandies

and headed straight for the
white van into Mountjoy.

- [Interviewer] What was it like

when that door
closed behind you?

- I was drunk.

- [Rodney] You know, you've
got this incredible image

of that man sitting
in that amazing house

and then that night was
sitting in a prison cell.

There was a lot of
shock in the area.

A lot of people were wondering
what this meant overall

for everything and there
was certainly a lot of anger

in the area from his supporters.

So this is Dune Mountain.

This is where over
a two year period,

a huge number of
attacks took place.

The electoral substations
were targeted,

the wind farms were targeted,

and dozens of telegraph poles
were cut down and it was all

to cause disruption to
all of the factories

on the other side
of that mountain.

There were two distinct
period of attacks.

They began in the days after
the business was taken over,

but developed over
the following years.

They were all about
preventing the administrators

from selling off the
Quinn businesses.

- [Reporter] Quinn
Group has new owners

under new name Aventas.

More than 1,100 people are
employed by the Aventas Group.

Jobs put at risk by a
campaign of attacks.

[intense music]

- [Rodney] The attacks
started quite low scale

and then they soon
intensified from cutting

electricity wires to
setting fire to vehicles,

to crashing cars into
sides of buildings.

Part of an ongoing
campaign of intimidation

and threats to try to
warn off people who are

maybe attempting to buy
parts of the business.

- Fundamentally, this
community and its employees

are one in the same thing.

I think there's a very
narrow minded minority

who are actually
conducting these campaigns

of violence and sabotage
and intimidation.

- Certainly the heavy-handed
approach by an Irish government

selected by the people to
win with that heavy hand

into a rural area who had done
nothing but good in that area

and take it over and destroy it.

I mean, it was criminal
and of course it was going

to raise tensions and of course
things were going to happen

and did happen.

Was I part of it?

Absolutely not.

Was I anger, was it done
because of my anger?

Was it done because I
was telling the truth

about what the position was?

Maybe.

But was I involved in
planning it and involved?

Absolutely not.

- The Irish cement
market started to
liberalize in the 1990s

and as a result both Sean
Quinn and Kevin Lagan

looked at building large plants.

There was a bitterness there,

there was a rivalry there
that kind of spilled out

when they both
started to plant flags

into their public market.

When Quinn got into distress
and the business was in peril,

Kevin Lagan was
an obvious buyer.

The difficulty obviously was
that there was this emnity

in the past.

Lagan was quite determined to
try and rescue the business

and rescue the
jobs and, you know,

he would've had a lot of
good standing with the banks,

good standing.

He was somebody who could,
who could easily have stepped

into a lot of those businesses
and just changed the name

over the door.

But obviously that was
the problem for Quinn.

He didn't want to see
anybody's name over the door.

- Kevin Lagan got a parcel
in the post and inside

that parcel was a cigar box.

Inside the cigar box was a
bullet and a message that said,

"Quinn, is this what you want?"

- If you read between the lines,

do you want to be coming
into the lions den

to run the business
and to contribute

to making our
community non-friendly.

Let's use that word,
non-friendly or hostile.

- Really, it was a case
that Quinn's supporters

didn't want anybody taking
over the business, obviously.

But I'd say Kevin Lagan
probably would've been towards

the top of people not to
take the business over.

- The whole thing was a mess.

I mean, the whole
attacks that happened,

people were pointing
the finger at me.

I had no hand, act or
part in any attack.

I suppose I played a bit of
football and you get a box

in the mouth or you give
one or get one and you have

to get on with life.

There's no point
in crying about it.

You just get on and move on.

- The intimidation
and the violence

basically scared everybody off.

So I think there was a feeling
that you weren't gonna get

an outside buyer.

That the buyer for the business
would probably have to come

from the inside.

- Something had to be done.

We weren't able to continue
to keep the business

and be sold but we had
to have an alternative.

We had to have a
management buyout.

- There were lots of rumors at
the time that there was work

underway to try to come up
with a plan that would see

the return of Quinn.

Essentially what was happening
was there was a consortium,

a local consortium that
were meeting regularly,

trying to thrash out a plan
that would see them take control

of the Quinn business and
then return Sean Quinn

to that business.

- So John McCartin came
to me in 2014, early 2014,

and said that there could be a
deal done and that there will

a position to buy the
manufacturing business.

And of course that was
sweet music to my ears

that this company should go
back to where it belonged

and it should come back into
the family and the community.

- John McCartin is a Fine
Gael councillor at the time

and a businessman.

And he was very well
regarded in the border region

but also in business
and he was someone

that got on very
well with Sean Quinn.

Their families went back years.

John McCartin and Sean
Quinn were very close.

- So, I rang Liam McCaffrey
and I asked to meet him.

Liam said he would and
he arranged to meet

all the directors, past
directors of Quinn Group,

and they all met the following
night and every single one

of them agreed, you know,
that they would throw

their shoulder to the wheel
and they would get on board.

- They called it Q-B-R-C, Quinn
Business Retention Company.

- Our group between signs
and protests and anything

we could do that could
deter Paul O'Brien,

who was the receiver,
from selling off,

breaking up the businesses
and selling them off

to interested parties and
Lagan was one of those.

And then there was a company
from England interested

in the packaging or pc,
a packaging company.

We got word probably from
internally, naturally in Quinns.

And they rang me up to say
that this was happening

and Paul was going to
sell that business.

And that was important.

That was crucial, you know,
to the Q-B-R-C package.

And that would have to
stay within the group.

It wasn't valuable without that.

And then said that we would
have to write them a letter

to persuade them not to
pursue their interest.

- The letter worked, the
English Packaging Company

immediately pulled
out of the deal.

The administrators and
the American bondholders

that were still owed
over 1 billion Euros

were being frustrated
at every attempt

to sell off the business.

But in the spring of 2014,
despite the previous threat

to his life, Kevin Lagan
come back to the table

to make a bid for
Quinn Rooftiles.

But that only made him a target
for Quinn supporters again.

And over the course
of one weekend,

his businesses north
and south were attacked,

causing over a million
Euros worth of damage.

Kevin Lagan was initially
determined to go through

with the deal for the
roof tile factory,

but then another death
threat arrived this time

on the morning of
his wife's death.

He'd had enough
and he pulled out.

For the American bond holders,
it was the last straw.

They were still owed
over 1.1 billion Euros.

And it was at this point they
began to enter negotiations

with Quinn's business allies
and former management team,

Q-B-R-C.

So this is the 140 page
agreement between Q-B-R-C

and the three
American bondholders,

which effectively
saw an agreement to
set up a new company

which would manage the cement
business in this package

of business but what
it didn't include

was the glass factory.

The factory, the business
that Sean Quinn really wanted

to get his hands on.

What the bondholders and
Q-B-R-C agreed in this document

was that if there was no,

what they called
community interference,

defined as sabotage,
threats and intimidation,

there's a specific
clause in the deal,

Q-B-R-C would get a higher
percentage from the sale

of the glass business.

You know, there's
huge amount of detail

throughout this document
and who it never names

is Sean Quinn.

Sean Quinn's name is
not in this agreement.

- I suppose the one element
that would've been surprise

would've been whether Sean
Quinn was involved or not

and how far he would've got.

But that seems to have been
slapped down pretty quickly

by the three hedge funds.

They didn't really want to
be seen to have Sean Quinn

in direct control and in terms
of what that reputationally

would mean for them.

And I think there would've
been a lot of questions asked

of them if, because
of the whole history.

His retention then
as a consultant,

almost like a presidential role,

it would've sat well
'cause that would've meant

that he wasn't in
control of the business,

but locally he would've still
seemed to have been involved.

- [Reporter] The site
has been purchased

by the Quinn Business
Retention Company,

which is run by local
business owners and supporters

of the former billionaire.

Mr. Quinn was greeted
by cheering and clapping

when he visited the
premises this morning.

[dramatic music]

- Pictures are on the television
of the boys all back in

and Sean Quinn going about
with a tray of drinks.

So, we were all delighted
and we were all chuffed

and sure it was what
we had campaigned for.

- I was there watching
a cherry picker go up

onto the side of the building
to remove the Aventas sign

and they took it down
and they set fire to it.

- We thought at that stage,
mission accomplished,

we can take a breather.

But naturally, because
of what had happened,

he couldn't be seen to
be back in there as boss.

He wasn't CEO.

The CEO was Liam McCaffrey.

- As far as I was concerned,
I was completely in control.

I rang Liam and said,
"Liam, could I meet you

and have a bit of a chat?"

So I said to him,
"Am I the boss here?"

So I had my suspicions,
but even after that,

day by day, week by
week, you could see

that there was something wrong.

- I don't want to blame him.

- And I feel like
all of a sudden

there's nobody reporting to me.

- Sean Quinn has been totally
ignored and humiliated.

- I felt I had no choice.

I knew the game was up.

So I said, okay, bye-bye.

Not a penny from Allen Dukes.

Not a penny of redundancy,
not a penny from anybody

for anything, nothing.

Just everybody tried
to bleed us dry

so we couldn't pursue them.

- When the news came through
that he'd left the business,

there was a state of disbelief.

It really was a case of him
almost overplaying his hand

once he'd left the business and
once he'd left the building,

and it was very hard to see of
anyway he could get back in.

- I built that company.

They didn't build that company,

I built that company.

- There was allegations
being made all over the place

on both sides.

One saying one thing, the
other saying a different thing.

But this time there was
something a wee bit more hostile

about it that was
very hot and heavy.

- They were trying to
give an excuse of why

they would push Sean Quinn out.

That doesn't lead to good
relations and people can get

wrong ideas in their head.

- Sean Quinn was out
of the business again.

The wind farms and
the plastics business

and the glass plant,
they were all gone.

For a period of time,
there were discussions

between Q-B-R-C and
the Quinn family,

but a deal proved impossible.

Violence returned to
the border and this time

the very executive team
that Sean Quinn had built

became the targets.

- The second phase of attacks
began towards the end of 2015.

[dog barks]

This time the targets were
the management of the company,

Kevin Lunney, Dara O'Reilly
and Liam McCaffrey.

Posters calling them money
grabbers and making threats

began to appear on the border.

Here we have the incident
of the pig's head

that caused massive
controversy here at the time.

A pig's head was left at
the home of Kevin Lunney.

It was found by one
of his daughters.

It was seen as a
very sinister move

and caused much
revulsion in the area.

- They have annoyed
a lot of people,

the number of farmers across
the side of that mountain,

and the number of customers
and the number of people

that have issued legal
proceedings against

and went to reneging on
the deal with the Quinns,

so they have a lot of enemies.

- [Reporter] Father of six,
Kevin Lunney was abducted

close to his home in Derrylin
in County Fermanaugh.

He was badly beaten before
being dumped on the side

of the road in county Cavan.

His attack represented an
escalation in the campaign

of intimidation and violence
against the executive team

in recent years.

- It was a Tuesday evening,
September 17th, 2019.

Mr. Lunney left work
sometime after six o'clock

and he was driving up this
narrow little country lane

that leads to his home in
Derrylin in county Fermanagh.

When he saw the white BMW
parked in the lane way

in front of him, and he said
immediately as he stopped

this BMW reversed.

Immediately two men
emerged from that BMW.

They were both
wearing face masks,

their faces were
completely covered and they

were wearing black clothing.

These two men approached
Mr. Lunney's car and tried

to drag him out of it.

And he said there was a scuffle.

He kicked at them from
inside the vehicle.

So it took some time
for them to get him out

of the Land Cruiser.

When they got him outside,
he realized that there

was another man had
arrived in an Audi A4.

Described him as being bigger,

heavier set than the other two.

So this man had a Stanley knife
in his hand and he held it

to Mr. Lunney's face.

- Get in there!

Get in!

- [Eoin] He felt the Audi
startup and move at speed.

This journey continued for
about 40 to 50 minutes.

The boot opened up again
and he noticed that he was

in a very overgrown area.

He figured it was a farm yard
of some kind, pretty unkempt.

And there were a number of
trailers, in particular,

a blue trailer.

Once he was in there,
this is when really,

I suppose the abduction has
turned into a false imprisonment

now and the assault on
Mr. Lunney would begin

inside that trailer.

At that point, his attacker
then held him up and told him

so that you'll remember
why you're here.

We need to mark you so
that you'll remember

why this happened.

They then took bleach and
they used a rag to rub bleach

into his legs, into his torso.

That caused an immense
amount of pain, he said.

And then they used the
bag to rub the bleach

all over his face and head.

They then used a wooden bat
to strike Mr. Lunney's shin.

He said that after
the first strike,

he knew that his
shin had broken,

but then he was struck
again almost immediately

in exactly the same place.

They told him that they were
gonna leave him at the side

of a road but he was
warned, do not look back.

And he was pushed out
of the van with his face

facing towards the ditch.

- [Reporter] A board member
of Quinn Industrial Holdings

claimed today the attack
was carried out by people

who were contracted
and paid to do it.

This morning, as part of
an ongoing investigation,

Garda made three arrests.

Amid high security,
the men were brought

to Virginia Courthouse
this morning.

The details of the
allegations against the men

cannot be reported
at this stage.

Garda here say their
investigation is continuing.

- The attack on Kevin
changed everything.

It changed people's
perception that this attack

they believed at the
time was carried out

in support of Quinn.

And I think he has lost a
lot of respect in the area

from people who would've
previously supported him.

- [Interviewer] Did you have
anything to do with the attack

on Kevin Lunney?

- Absolutely nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Where would I, why
would I bother me head
with Kevin Lunney?

Just think about why
would I bother my head

with Kevin Lunney?

One thing I think that somebody
should ask Kevin Lunney,

why was he attacked?

What they have done over
the last six, seven years

and the level of betrayal
is probably unprecedented

in the history of this state.

Now I have nothing good
to say about Kevin Lunney.

I'd like to make a
presentation to somebody

who had a major influence on
the success of Quinn Direct

over the past 10 years.

Somebody has to have the
respect of their colleagues

and that's the
important thing in life.

Kevin Lunney always
had the respect.

[crowd cheers]

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

I don't think that
anybody, regardless of what

whether denied, they should
have stooped to the level

of what they've done
to Kevin Lunney,

that should never have happened.

Human beings don't do
that to each other.

But there'll be doubts in
people's minds, you know, Jesus,

how come the television
crews from all over Ireland

promoting this thing
about Sean Quinn,

and he was responsible for
the abduction of Kevin Lunney.

People do believe that.

- [Father] I now believe
that there has been

a mafia style group,
with it's own Godfather

operating in our region for
some time and it's serious.

This well planned and
well organized abduction

could only have
happened if some person

with ulterior motives agreed
to pay these criminals

a sum of money and gave
instruction of what he required

be to done to an
unsuspecting victim.

Some devious people are so
consumed with hatred and emnity

that they lose their moral
compass and are prepared

to hire the most
ruthless of criminals

to achieve their sinister goals.

They also become
compulsive liars.

This region deserves better.

This region and its
resources belong to all

its hardworking citizens.

[crowd applauds]

- Every morning you get
up, it's no different

and it's just this
heavy load every morning

and enormous pressure, yeah.

And it translate on
to children, I think,

and everybody in the house
because everyone is in bad form.

- You know, what they've
done to us is unbelievable.

It was hard to believe
they'd go and try to take

the business off us.

But now to try to make us
criminals being involved

in Kevin Lunney's attack.

Don't worry about the
boys that done it.

Get Sean Quinn.

Get the big, get to
whoever's paying the money.

[gentle music]

The people have to believe it.

They have to believe that
there's something in this.

Surely the priest wouldn't
be getting up on the altar

and blaming Sean Quinn if he
wasn't involved somewhere.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

- [Gavin] The further
distance you take from it,

it becomes this kind of
clear cut case of a guy

who over borrowed,
made this crazy bet

on a single share
of a single bank

and then had to be bailed
out by that same bank.

And that's just
seen as so toxic.

It's not black and white.

The legacy of the businesses
will always be there

for the people who work in
them and for their families

and for the local area.

But there's some pretty
big missteps that can,

couldn't, can't
ever be forgotten.

- [Fintan] For all my
criticisms of Sean Quinn,

I think the thing you
can't take away from him

is that he put a lot of
backbone into communities

that had been
abandoned and abused.

Made them feel
that they mattered.

And I think the
strengths of purpose

that we've been getting

from those border communities
over the Brexit crisis

has at least something to do
with the legacy of Sean Quinn.

- The words that come to mind
when I think of Sean Quinn

are delusion and defiance.

I often felt looking at those
children at the beginning

of their adult lives when
they were getting married,

having their first babies,
for them to have to go through

close to a decade of
living under that pressure

in those circumstances.

And for a father to have
put them through that

because of his own determination
and his own delusion.

And because of some
misguided concept of

mafia-like family loyalty,

that to me just strikes
me as being sad.

I mean, this at the end of
the day is a tragedy, really.

And I don't think
there are any winners,

certainly not among the Quinns.

- I think he deserves to be
remembered as somebody who

achieved a remarkable
economic revitalization

of a very depressed
area of the country.

And the footnote
will have to be that

the great pity is that
he gambled it all away.

- I'm delighted to unveil
Mannok as a new brand

of the business moving forward.

This marks a significant step.

It's the roots of where
this business has come from

and it's to reflect
that in the new name.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music]

- All I can say is
that in my 75 years,

I never knowingly,

[Sean sobs quietly]

I never knowingly took anything
that didn't belong to me.

Never.

[gentle music]

I think my legacy
will be that, uh--

I built up a great company.

I employed a lot of people
in a very poor area.

I was an honest man

and that the area

would be more successful
because of Sean Quinn

than it would be without him.

And that he got rough justice.

- Okay?
- [Interviewer] Yep we're done.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music ends]