Debt magazine names property man

One of Northern Ireland's best known property developers has been named in a leading debtors' magazine over a 10 million euro (£8 million) investment gone wrong.

Peter Curistan, 56, the key player behind the landmark Odyssey development in Belfast's docks, has been listed in Stubbs Gazette.

The publication was made after the High Court in Dublin ruled that 10.4 million euro (£8.3 million) must be repaid to the former Anglo Irish Bank.

The debts being chased by the rebranded Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) were run up by Cambourne Investments, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands and which has a branch in the Parnell Centre in Dublin, and Century City Ltd, based at the Sheridan Imax Theatre, Parnell Street, and Mr Curistan, of Hampton Park, Belfast.

The loans were advanced to purchase at least two units in Dublin's Parnell Centre.

Curistan has been pursued by the IBRC for several years over multimillion-euro debts for property investments gone sour. The accountant-turned-investor began a series of successful ventures in the 1990s with a nine-screen cinema in Dublin Road, Belfast under his Sheridan Group.

He followed that with the development of the Parnell cinema site in Dublin's north inner city.

Several years ago Mr Curistan was forced to flatly deny allegations that his property and development business has links to IRA money laundering. Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson used parliamentary privilege to make the allegations in 2006.

Mr Curistan, who has successfully sued over the claim once before, has challenged the DUP MP to repeat the remarks outside the House of Commons. The Stubbs listing has been published in editions sent to subscribers and will be in shops from October 1.

The debt-monitoring magazine also revealed that in just one week, 113 judgments totalling 35 million euro (£28 million) have been registered against consumers and companies failing to pay back loans or bills to their creditors. This brings total judgments in the year to date to over the one billion euro (£799.4 million) mark.

Press Association