Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) generated almost €6bn [£4.9bn] last year from rents and by selling off chunks of its vast property portfolio.
Overtaken by controversy almost from the day it was created in 2010, the state’s so-called “bad bank” has also admitted that it holds an interest in 108 of Ireland’s 835 hotels. It denied it was keeping a number of ventures afloat simply to benefit from rents and loan interest.
NAMA, which refused to give a breakdown of hotels “linked to the agency’s portfolio”, is allegedly keeping numerous unsustainable hotels open by providing loans which allow them to meet short-term expenditure.
“It is helping unsustainable hotels that get into trouble and is keeping them going while independent family hotels are threatened,” claimed Fianna Fail’s jobs spokesman Dara Calleary. “It is a disgrace.”
Last year’s income of €5.8m [£4.7bn] brings the total generated by NAMA since it was established to more than €16.5bn [£13.6bn], making it one of the biggest property management companies in the world with a portfolio spanning the Atlantic and containing investments in Ireland, the UK and Europe and in almost every state in America.
Led by Brendan McDonagh, the agency has confirmed it will provide around €2bn [£1.6bn] for Irish property projects over the next three years.
That money will finance the “construction of 4,500 new houses and apartments in Dublin, in addition to office accommodation in the city centre, as well as commercially viable retail projects” McDonagh said.
“It will also include significant development of the Dublin Docklands and the other main urban centres in response to the emerging growth needs of the economy.”
Another NAMA criticism centres on the time it takes to make decisions on sales or lending projects, a bottleneck it claims to be fixing with an average ruling now taking just four days. About 17,000 credit decisions were made by NAMA during 2013.
But perhaps the most damaging claims against the agency — this time from America — are allegations that it committed mail and bankruptcy fraud, obstructed justice, and was responsible for intimidation in a civil racketeering case. NAMA is also accused of disclosing a developer’s confidential loan information to third parties for the “purpose of defrauding plaintiffs”.
NAMA is being sued by a group of former borrowers, including developer John Flynn, Dr Joseph Sheehan, and others who are jointly seeking damages of $12m [£7.2m]. All the individuals originally borrowed €200m [£165m] from the then Anglo Irish Bank in 1994.
Documents lodged with New York Southern District Court allegedly show that NAMA and other defendants continued to demand payment of fraudulent interest charges, threatened enforcement of fraudulent personal guarantees and threatened to seize assets and properties.
NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh is among the other defendants listed in the papers which also accuse the agency and its employees of committing obstruction of justice, pursuing fraudulent claims against plaintiffs in the Irish courts and continuing a campaign of intimidation against plaintiffs.
In a statement a NAMA spokesman said: “NAMA will defend this matter fully and has already instructed lawyers in the United States.”
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[…] now, that cannot be possible. Do we not have NAMA sorting out all our sins? Controversy Hit Irish But perhaps the most damaging claims against the agency — this time from America — […]