Weekend Economists Go Out with a Boom August 24-26, 2012

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13. Barclays' representative threatened to embarrass him, says Aynsley

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0825/1224322965402.html

IRISH BANK Resolution Corporation chief executive Mike Aynsley said a representative of the Barclay brothers threatened to embarrass him after the bank refused to sell them loans secured on shares owned by client Paddy McKillen in the Maybourne hotels in London.

Mr Aynsley said the threat was made after IBRC executive Richard Woodhouse told Richard Faber, the representative of David and Frederick Barclay, in January 2012 that it would not sell Mr McKillen’s loans secured on his 36 per cent stake in the hotels but that it would support him instead.

Mr Aynsley said that Mr Woodhouse was told by Mr Faber that he was going to go out of his way “to embarrass me”. Mr Aynsley was speaking on the publication of IBRC’s interim results.

Mr McKillen and the Barclays are locked in a battle for control of Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley hotels. The High Court in London ruled against Mr McKillen on a claim that the Barclays had unlawfully bought into the hotels.