Irish Executive Abducted, Assaulted as Violent Campaign Grows

(Bloomberg) -- Kevin Lunney, director and chief operating officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings, which operates around Ireland’s border region, was abducted and assaulted on Tuesday, in an escalation of a campaign against the company.

Lunney’s car was discovered on fire near his family home, the company said in an e-mail statement. Hours later, he was found “badly beaten” across the border in the south of Ireland, after being left at the side of a road by his attackers, Quinn said.

Lunney suffered a broken leg and other “very severe, but non life threatening injuries,” it added.

“We have previously warned of the inevitability of serious injury and loss of life arising from these sustained and increasingly serious criminal attacks,” said Adrian Barden, chairman of the company. “We find it inexplicable that not a single arrest has been made north or south despite dozens of incidents.”

Other incidents include physical assaults and arson attacks at or near the homes or businesses of senior staff, the company said. Quinn Industrial Holdings controls a range of businesses within building supplies and consumer products, including cement, quarries, roof tiles and food packaging.

The attack is the latest in a long line of trouble to hit the business. The company was formed out of the ashes of an empire originally controlled by Sean Quinn, at one point Ireland’s richest man before he lost control of it during the financial crisis.

QIH is owned by QBRC Limited and an investor group that holds a majority of the common equity in QIH, the company said in April. The investor group is made up of Brigade Capital Management LP, Contrarian Capital Management LLC and Silver Point Capital LP, it said.

QBRC was established by three local businessmen and executives.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net

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