A RETIRED senior manager with National Irish Bank has been disqualified by the High Court for six years from involvement in the management of any company on grounds of unfitness arising from the investigation into the 1990s tax evasion scandal in the bank.
Frank Brennan, of Ardglas, Dundrum, Dublin, is the third senior NIB official to be disqualified on foot of applications by the director of corporate enforcement following the investigation by court-appointed inspectors into tax evasion at the bank. The inspectors made findings of improper practices in NIB and National Irish Bank Financial Services Ltd.
The two other NIB officials - Nigel D'Arcy, of Castledillon, Straffan, Co Kildare and Barry Seymour, executive director of NIB from April 1994 to July 1996 - have been disqualified for 10 years and nine years respectively while proceedings are pending against five others, including former NIB chief executive Jim Lacey.
Mr Brennan had opposed the director's application and took issue with many of the inspectors' findings. He argued it was unfair and unreasonable to attribute responsibility to him for "the malpractices of branch managers" and said his actions were reasonable having regard to the information he had at the time.
In a reserved judgment last month, Mr Justice Murphy found that Mr Brennan and other senior NIB managers had failed to deal decisively with bogus non-resident accounts, the improper charging of interest and with Clerical Medical Insurance (CMI) policies.
He found Mr Brennan was part of senior management responsible over a 10-year period for "ignoring or facilitating tax evasion".
The judge accepted Mr Brennan was "genuinely shocked" when he heard two RTÉ television exposés of bogus non-resident accounts and of fictitious accounts - "for which he bore no responsibility" - for the promotion of CMI and other products in NIB. However, to have learned from RTÉ of two schemes of tax evasion unknown to him was, in itself, "indicative of a shortcoming in management and control", the judge remarked.
While there was insufficient evidence to show Mr Brennan had breached his "duty" as an officer of a company under the Companies Act, the judge was satisfied that, as a result of the failure to supervise and control while a director and as senior general manager, Mr Brennan's "conduct" was such as to to make a disqualification order appropriate.
The court gave credit to Mr Brennan for the "decisive" elimination of fictitious accounts. It noted he had been co-operative with the inspectors' investigation, had not sought to minimise non-compliance and the court acknowledged his attempts to rectify or stop the misconduct within the bank.
