Co Fermanagh businessman Sean Quinn has revealed that his own family asked him if he was involved in the attack and kidnapping of his former colleague Kevin Lunney.
The former billionaire said following the abduction of Mr Lunney in September 2019, "even some of my own family - my brother and sisters and some of my kids - were saying, 'Daddy were you involved?'."
Mr Quinn added that Mr Lunney should not have been kidnapped and tortured as he "wasn't to blame" for what happened to the Quinn Group.
A director at Quinn Industrial Holdings, Mr Lunney suffered injuries to his legs, torso and face after he was abducted outside his home in Co Fermanagh.
He was found injured in Co Clare several hours later.
Three men were jailed for the attack.
However, the judge said the highest sentence would be reserved for the unnamed "paymaster" who funded the crime.
Read more:
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Seán Quinn: 'I made plenty mistakes'
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Mr Quinn, who at one time was Ireland’s richest man, says he believes the judge was referring to him.
In his autobiography, which is due to be published this week, Mr Quinn has described the "disgraceful insinuations" that he had some involvement in Mr Lunney's abduction.
He maintains there was no "scintilla of evidence" that he had any "hand, act or part in it".
But he said some of his own family doubted him.
"After Kevin Lunney was abducted… the air got very contaminated and even some of my own family - my brother and sisters and some of my kids - were saying, 'Daddy were you involved?'," Mr Quinn told BBC NI.
"They had some doubts that maybe I had something to do with it and some doubts that maybe I was responsible for the illegal loans; maybe I was responsible for some of the sabotage.
"So there was doubts by many people at that."
Mr Quinn built a business empire once valued at nearly £4 billion, but was declared bankrupt in Northern Ireland in 2011, a decision later annulled.
However, he was also declared bankrupt in the Republic in 2012. Most of the Quinn Group's debt was linked to the ownership of shares in Anglo Irish Bank.
"I bought the shares in the bank because I thought they were cheap, so I was wrong.," said Mr Quinn.
"I'm not denying that I was the man that recommended buying the shares in the bank - no question about that - but I wasn't involved in illegal share dealing.
"The 600-odd million pounds we lost on them was crazy, maybe madness on my part for buying so many shares, fine.
"But it wasn't a problem for the Quinn Group - I mean, it was only a year and a half's profit.
"The problem was, I blamed nobody for the first few years; I just took it on the chest.
"But then as the blame game - one thing after another, finishing up with Kevin Lunney's abduction - it went on and on and on.
"I was turning out to be the biggest criminal in the history of the state."
