Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the former Anglo Irish Bank, has issued proceedings against Ken Drumm, younger brother of David Drumm, the former Anglo boss. A reluctant decision, one imagines.
Learned friends tell me the writ was issued last week. Aside from the fact that the bank is seeking a judgment, there is very little other publicly available information.
I reckon it must involve a rather modest sum. After all, compared with David’s hotly contested millions, Ken is a rather different Drumm.
Drumm the younger reached some degree of prominence in October 2010 when he briefly reopened Renards nightclub on South Frederick Street in Dublin, once run by Robbie Fox. Drumm also ran Okohaus Superstructures, a company that built schools for the Department of Education. It went into receivership in December 2008.
Before that, Drumm was a director of Okohaus, a timber-frame-home supplier that went into liquidation in March 2008. He had a dispute with Celtic Invoice Discounting over a €60,000 debt. In 2009, Bank of Ireland got a judgment against him personally for almost €18,000. Drumm was restricted from acting as a company director last December on the application of Ken Fennell, the Okohaus liquidator.
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Anglo didn’t bank Okohaus, so presumably the debt is personal. That’s unlike the court case which, as they say, is purely business.
It’s all go for IBRC, with Mike Aynsley, the bank’s boss, facing a trespass suit. Kieran McGuigan of Co Monaghan has filed proceedings in a dispute over the receivership of an apartment block. He will appear in person and it promises to be a lively day. McGuigan was restrained in November from interfering with the receivers, after he changed the locks and told tenants the receivership was a scam. He denied he was behind an email showing one of the receivers in a Nazi uniform.
Mike Kemp, 50, is stepping down as chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation. Wanted: someone to “transform the organisation into a proactive and thought-leading representative body”. After 25 years, Kemp probably feels like a transformation too. Irish Life’s Gerry Hassett, the IIF president, said it had completed a review. Top of the agenda? “There’s an element of frustration that we’re being treated in the same way as banks when it comes to regulation.” Perish the thought.
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Barry tastes his own insolvency medicine
A former low-cost liquidator has joined the growing throng of UK bankrupts. John Barry, who formerly operated as Barry & Partners out of Dublin’s D’Olier Street, secured more than 80 insolvency gigs in a brief career. He had spotted an opportunity in the booming market after putting Hunter Marshal, a recruitment agency, into liquidation in 2009. Last January, he was disqualified as a director for six years. Insolvent trading and “deliberate and systematic” under-declaration of taxes were cited by the liquidator of the recruiter, which once employed 70. Three other directors were disqualified for a collective total of 15 years. Barry had already resigned his appointments and filed for bankruptcy.
Marker keen to snare inn crowd
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The Marker hotel in Grand Canal Dock does not open until the winter, but Interstate Hotels, its US operator, is already putting down a, well, marker.
I hear Interstate has poached Charlie Sheil as general manager from the nearby ultra-funky Gibson. Sheil is on gardening leave, and would not return calls, so we turned fruitlessly to Astrid Brennan, Fleishman PR handler and socialite, who is handling the PR for the Marker. A tight-lipped socialite? Apparently so.
The Gibson, behind the O2 theatre, opened with a party with entertainment from Fight Like Apes and the DJ Mo Kelly.
The Marker is shaping up as a mirror image of the Gibson, right down to its proximity to the “Bored Gosh” theatre. A hip eaterie and cocktail bar aims to bring the beautiful people to the south bank. Pass a bellini, please.
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Tattan launch has health warning
Stirrings afoot for the new health insurance venture planned by Oliver Tattan, Stephen Loughman and Jim Dowdall. The trio pumped more than €400,000 into their Dunnari venture in April, filings show.
Word is that a July launch is planned for the venture in conjunction with Irish Life. Tattan was always ambitious. It’s all very hush-hush, with brokers approached obliged to sign confidentiality agreements. Such pulse-raising excitement.