BUSINESSMAN SEÁN QUINN, who infamously went bankrupt in 2011 due to betting on shares in Anglo Irish Bank, has said that he was “never greedy for money” but was “greedy for success”. 

In an interview with RTÉ’s PrimeTime as he releases a book about his life, Quinn has said that he made decisions that were “stupid” but “totally legal”.

In 2008, Quinn was had amassed a fortune worth more than €4.7 billion through his business ventures that spanned multiple industries, particularly insurance.

However, the Quinn Group experienced massive losses after gambling on shares in Anglo Irish Bank through a financial instrument called contracts for differences (CFDs).

In 2012, Quinn was found guilty of contempt of court after efforts to put assets out of reach of Anglo Irish Bank and sentenced to nine weeks in jail.

In his PrimeTime interview tonight, Quinn refuted the suggestion that he was the architect of his own downfall.

“That’s not true. That is totally untrue,” he said.

“The position is very clear, I spent around 600 million, 630 million, on shares and CFDs, which was stupid but totally legal.

He said the government allowed Anglo Irish Bank to “add 2.34 billion to support those shares”.

“Anybody who thinks that that money was ever invested for the Quinns’ sake – well, I don’t know what planet they’re on. That was invested to support the Anglo share price.”

He accepted that he regrets having continued to buy further CFDs and said that “we shouldn’t have added to the problem”.

“I’ve admitted in the book that I was always greedy, but greedy for what? I was never greedy for money. I was greedy for success.”

Quinn also discussed the attack on Kevin Lunney, who was abducted and badly beaten in 2018. He was targeted due to his role as chief operating officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings, which was taken out of the Quinn family’s control in the wake of the Anglo shares controversy.

Quinn called the attack a “barbaric act”.

“My reaction was, that was a barbaric act, as I believe it was. Regardless of what Kevin Lunney may have done or said, it doesn’t really matter,” he said.

“A man going home from work at five or six o’clock in the evening, he’s entitled to go home to his wife and family, so I just thought it was a barbaric act.”

Asked what he did to try to find out who had carried out the attack, Quinn said: “I didn’t do anything. There was nothing I could do. What was I going to do? Why would I be sticking my nose into it?”

“I stayed away from it. I kept completely out of it.”

He also discussed speaking to a priest who delivered a homily after the attack, mentioning that “the paymaster needs to be brought to justice”.

Quinn was not named in the homily but felt that a link was being drawn.

“I said, ‘Father, you’re wrong and you’ve done me and my family an awful lot of damage,” Quinn said.

RTÉ has reported that the priest told the broadcaster he was “quite surprised” by Quinn’s reaction and that he had made no accusation against him.

The collapse of the Quinn empire had significant impacts on Irish society and the economy. A 2% levy was imposed on all insurance premiums as a result on Quinn Insurance being put into administration in 2010 and is still in effect.