Troubled overseas property company Harlequin has issued High Court proceedings against its former accountant Wilkins Kennedy seeking damages of £40m for professional negligence.
The claim - which Wilkins Kennedy denies - alleges that an "improper relationship" developed between former Wilkins Kennedy employee Jeremy Newman, current partner at the firm Martin MacDonald, and Padraig O'Halloran, a former ICE group contractor in charge of developing Harlequin's flagship Buccament Bay resort who last year was found guilty of misappropriating millions of pounds from the Harlequin project. O'Halloran was able to misappropriate the funds because he cultivated a "personal friendship" with MacDonald and Newman, Harlequin alleges, something it added Wilkins Kennedy did not...
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