{"id":644178,"date":"2026-10-04T03:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644178\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T03:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:26:18","slug":"blackbee-founder-claims-liquidators-failed-to-exhaust-all-assets-before-compensation-call-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644178\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackBee founder claims liquidators failed to exhaust all assets before compensation call \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of BlackBee<\/a>, the Cork<\/a> investment group whose key arms have succumbed to liquidation over the past three years, claims liquidators failed to exhaust all assets available to investors in a property-backed bond before declaring that investors could access a special compensation fund.<\/p>\n

David O\u2019Shea, the founder, warned in a letter to the Investor Compensation Company DAC (ICCL) last week that if it proceeds with compensating investors in the bond without exhausting all available assets, he will apply to the High Court for leave to seek a judicial review. <\/p>\n

The liquidators said they \u201creject outright\u201d the contents of O\u2019Shea\u2019s letter. <\/p>\n

Luke Charleton and Alan Large of EY<\/a>, the liquidators of the various BlackBee entities, wrote last month to investors in Blackrock Office Bond II \u2013 which raised over \u20ac11 million in 2019 to buy Block 2 at Blackrock Business Park in south Co Dublin<\/a> \u2013 saying they were entitled to compensation from ICCL. <\/p>\n

It was the first BlackBee investment to be classified as a so-called compensatable event. The maximum payout for ICCL-eligible claims is 90 per cent of the compensatable loss, up to a cap of \u20ac20,000.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea noted in his letter to ICCL that the property had been sold by a receiver for \u20ac8.75 million in August 2024, resulting in a net \u20ac5.88 million being transferred to the liquidators. That was after a loan from a property company associated with wealth manager Warren Private, called Futuredale, was repaid. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the liquidators said in letters to investors that a total compensatable loss of \u20ac4.25 million had occurred. This comprised loan repayments and interest received by City Quarter Capital II, a bond issuance vehicle within the BlackBee group, that was not made available for distribution to the Blackrock Office Bond II investors. <\/p>\n

However, O\u2019Shea claimed in his letter to ICCL that Blackrock Office Bond II had recourse to between \u20ac3 million and \u20ac4.5 million of additional \u201csuper senior\u201d collateral held by City Quarter Capital II, to protect investors in the product against property shortfalls. This was secured against a portfolio of unencumbered healthcare properties, which a receiver has been actively selling down, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of physical sale proceeds (\u20ac5.878 million) and additional assets (the \u20ac3 million\u2013\u20ac4.5 million) yields a recovery in the range of 80-95 per cent of notional noteholder capital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea said the ICCL should not be paying compensation \u201cwhile millions of euro in registered collateral sit uncollected in the hands of an active receiver\u201d. <\/p>\n

He also alleged that BlackBee\u2019s core IT system, Hive, which held investment records, had been decommissioned after BlackBee Investments, the group\u2019s Central Bank-regulated entity, went into liquidation in May 2023. He said this led to \u201cdata corruption\u201d until Hive was recommissioned last September. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject outright the contents of Mr O\u2019Shea\u2019s letter,\u201d EY Ireland said in a statement on behalf of the joint liquidators. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea and Carl Dillon, an accountant and adviser to O\u2019Shea, will be examined in early November in the High Court on the affairs of the BlackBee entities in liquidation. <\/p>\n

BlackBee Investments had about \u20ac180 million of client assets when it was put into liquidation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe joint liquidators have returned over \u20ac30 million to investors to date. Investors are informed directly of the status of their investment. The joint liquidators will continue to work with asset owners, other receivers and liquidators to realise assets and to return funds to investors,\u201d EY said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The founder of BlackBee, the Cork investment group whose key arms have succumbed to liquidation over the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[273541,72,40229,73,61,60],"class_list":["post-644178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-blackbee-investments","tag-business","tag-ey","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}