WAITING FOR THE CURTAIN TO GO UP ON THE BVI JUDGMENT

The judgement of Mr Justice Edward Bannister* in a case brought by a founder of International Natural Energy (INE), Sheila McCaffrey, against Mr Quinn, the company and its chairwoman, Susan Morrice.

While we wait for the full text of the judgment to be published on the Eastern Caribbean Courts website http://www.eccourts.org/judgments.html

http://www.eccourts.org/judgments/decisions/2012/HC/stkitts/SMLifeVenturesvSusanMorriceetal.pdf

in the next few days, we can prepare ourselves thanks to the reports from the press, including Paul Cullen of the Irish Times who was actually present in Court during the hearing, Samantha McCaughren of the Sunday Business Post and Nicola Tallant of the Sunday World, for what we are about to read.

We have no concern with the commercial nature of the disputes between the parties, nor do we have an involvement in the issues other than the general desire to see justice done – but one of the parties, Tony Quinn, promotes himself as a spiritual teacher and we have met and heard from many people who have suffered from coming under his influence.  We are therefore rightfully interested in how the court proceedings shed light on his character and behaviour.  We also consider that the type of evidence emerging from the Court hearing and Judgment may be very helpful for those who have been confused about what to believe or think about Quinn’s teachings, although our experience of cultism teaches us that there are some for whom just about any evidence is only something to be ignored or explained away.

First of all, we know that the Judge decided that since 2007 the company has been run on an illegal set of rules which were introduced that year, replacing the original set of rules put in place when the company was set up.  The Judge has set aside the 2007 rules and ordered that the company is to go back to the original rules, which were, of course, the rules in place when most of the “small” shareholders from

…… bought their shares.  It seems that in 2007 the Board of Directors decided to change the rules, and didn’t even bother to make sure that this change was legal.  It’s not even clear whether they bothered to mention the change to the “small” shareholders.  Tony Quinn joined the Board of Directors in 2007, an appointment that the Judge has now judged invalid.  Tony Quinn has never legally been a Director of the oil company.  A Court Judgment that a company has been run illegally for five years is a very serious matter, and is a very poor reflection on the competence and the character of those involved.

Second of all, during the court hearing, Tony Quinn admitted that he knew almost nothing about running the company, and did not get involved in the “financials”.  He was unable to supply the Judge with answers to the most basic questions about the business.  He attempted to explain to the Judge his so-called system of “business” education, from which the Judge (despite being an eminent professional skilled in paying attention and drawing out the essential points) managed to gather only that Quinn advised businesses to “promote better people rather than inferior people”, which is hardly a new and original idea.   As Quinn is often referred to as a “businessman”, markets himself as a “business” guru, and claims to have improved profits in other peoples’ businesses on which he is paid a share, it is interesting to see that he is unable to say what profits are made in his own business.

Thirdly, it emerged in Court that vast amounts of the company’s money have been spent on and by Quinn.  The company could not have started up and found the oil without the money raised from the “small” shareholders.  It was their willingness to venture their hard-earned cash which enabled the prospecting to begin, while Quinn hung back and did not either invest himself or recommend others to invest.  He promotes himself as having super-abilities for seeking money-making opportunities and teaching others how to develop them – how then was he not the first to be rushing forward with his money to invest in this amazing opportunity? Everything that has gone to Quinn – the shareholding which diluted the other shareholders’ shares, the money spent on “security” and pursuing legal cases etc – means less return for those shareholders who took the risk, but in many cases have yet to see any reward.   The Judge has condemned much of this expenditure as unwarrantable – in effect, defrauding the shareholders of their rightful share of the company profits.

During the Court hearing, Educoist Susan Morrice gave a “tearful” account of how she was “intimidated”, attempting to justify the vast expenses on security for herself and Quinn.  Apparently her bins were overturned at her house in Denver and someone threatened to kill her dogs.  We do not condone threats and illegal actions, however here at DI we were interested to read that in her view “security” included a determination to find out who was spreading “negative stories” about the directors of the oil company.  She seemed to think that people did not have a right to say what they believed, if she didn’t like it.  Here at DI, we had our email system and website attacked, which we reported to the police, who were only able to say that the DOS attack was organized, and obviously orchestrated (it brought down the server by constant repeated hits at a rate too fast to be from normal traffic) and originated from abroad.  This is harassment and illegal action and would presumably be very expensive to arrange, and so could only be caused by someone convinced that they had a right to stop people from expressing their opinions, and had access to a lot of money.

For the record here, many stories criticizing Tony Quinn have been published from the 1970s onwards in newspapers and on TV and radio (many of them are in our archive here).

https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/the-tony-quinn-story-%E2%80%9Cfrom-butcher-to-oil-slick%E2%80%9D/

https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/summary-of-media-coverage/

If a story is published that is not true, or is unfair, then the right course of action is to make available the correct facts and request that they be published.  Everyone has a right to reply here on Dialogue Ireland – we have never had a reply from Tony Quinn despite inviting him to do so.  If he has any truth on his side we will be happy to post it, but it has never arrived.  Instead, we have had hacking attempts from mysterious and presumably expensive organized sources abroad, and demands from Quinn and Morrice’s solicitors that we give them personal and protected information from our records.  We refused, and were told by the Data Protection Officer that we were quite within our rights.

In comparison with the many threats and intimidation that we have received at DI over the years from many sources, it is interesting to see that Quinn and Morrice consider themselves justified in spending millions of shareholders’ money because their bins were overturned, or in Quinn’s case someone “bumped into” him in a shop, and someone put something over his wall (his house in Malahide does not have a letter-box).  Additional intimidation, it seemed, resulted from a small, unarmed reporter (Nicola Tallant of the Sunday World) who approached him in a street to ask him questions in the course of her work as a journalist.

SW Quinn faces tax probe5

Although Quinn boasts of his fitness and martial arts skills, apparently this encounter was one of the justifications for the expensive “security” operation.  This was described by the Judge as Quinn hiring a “private army” at the sole expense of the company and as being an unjustifiable expense, therefore amounting to defrauding the shareholders of their money.

Minder Bender10

Minder BenderSW11

We look forward to reading the full story.

*  Honourable Edward Bannister, QC
High Court Judge [Ag]
Place of Birth: Watford, England

Professional Qualification
1959 – 1963: Keble College, Oxford, B.A. [Honour Moderations and Literae Humaniores (2nd)]
1972 – 1972: Inns of Court School of Law
1974: Called to the Bar, England and Wales, Lincoln’s Inn
1991: Queen’s Council
1998: Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn
2005: Called to the Bar, BVI

Career
1975: Commenced practice as tenant in Chambers at 1 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London
1997: Chambers of Geoffrey Vos, QC, 3 Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, London
2009: High Court (Commercial) Judge [Ag], Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court