How To Recover Debt And Assests In The Most Complex And High-stakes Cases

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Law Firm: IR Global
• Subject Matter: Finance and Banking, Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring, Financial Services, Insolvency/Bankruptcy
• Author: IR Global
• Published date: 10 February 2023

By the time the walls of Ireland's famous Walford home were coming down, creditors and the Bankruptcy Trustee had already been in court for over ten years seeking to recover assets owed to them by the property's predecessor. "The owner filed bankruptcy in the U.S. and attempted to protect 100 million euros of assets by transferring them to his wife in Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, the UK and the United States, making this an international cross border matter," says Thomas H. Curran, managing partner of Curran Antonelli, who represents the claimants, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee Richard M. Coan in the bankruptcy case commenced by the former prominent Irish real estate developer Sean Dunne.

After the collapse of the Irish real estate market, Dunne and Killilea moved to Greenwich, Connecticut leaving Dunne's Irish lenders and other creditors with almost one billion Euro in debt. After the Irish bank restructuring agency known as NAMA commenced suit against Dunne and Killilea in Connecticut state court, Dunne filed for bankruptcy in early 2013. The Trustee's avoidance and recovery action soon followed, and Trustee Coan engaged Curran Antonelli as his special counsel.

Under daily scrutiny by the press, Curran went toe-to-toe with several other law firms for years as he and his team skillfully argued cases in United States Federal Courts, the High Courts of Ireland, England & South Africa as well as multiple lower courts in varied jurisdictions. When the dust settled, his client received a favorable outcome: a $21+ million jury verdict.

"Walking away with a win in court or in arbitration is only part of the battle," says Curran. "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."

On February 8, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Meyer, J.) enter its Order denying defendant Gayle Killilea's post-trial motions seeking a directed verdict or new trial in the fraudulent transfer action brought against her after extensive briefing and oral argument in the Fall of 2021 following the Court's entry of final Judgment in July 2021.

The jury entered its verdict after a more than four-week trial conducted in New Haven in which the jury also voided as fraudulent, multiple transfers of millions of Euro made by Dunne to...