Lawyers for Sean Quinn Junior have said his was a minor contempt of court when compared to the orders sought by IBRC bank.
The 33-year-old is at day two of his Supreme Court appeal challenging the three-month jail sentence he is serving for breaching court orders.
His lawyers said his father Sean Quinn was identified as the imprimatur in a scheme to move assets beyond the reach of the bank.
They said the bankrupt businessman's imprisonment was delayed on the rationale that he would try to reverse asset stripping transactions to secure the release of his son.
Supreme Court judge Donal O'Donnell has put it to the legal team that no other member of the Quinn children, in other words someone wholly innocent, was held in hostage for the chief.