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The Central Bank has been granted access to the transcripts and exhibits in the recent trial of former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm.
The application was made on Thursday before Judge Karen O’Connor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after written submissions and the relevant case law were handed into the court last Tuesday. The application was not contested by either the Director of Public Prosecutions or David Drumm.
Drumm was jailed for six years last month for his role in a multi-billion euro bank fraud scheme in 2008. The jury had returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, after just over ten and a half hours of deliberations. It was the State’s case that
Drumm (51) of Skerries, Co Dublin, conspired with Irish Life & Permanent's former CEO, Denis Casey, Anglo's former financial director Willie McAteer and former head of treasury at Anglo, John Bowe, among others, to carry out €7.2 billion in fraudulent circular transactions in order to bolster the customer deposits figure on Anglo's balance sheet.
The State also alleged that this €7.2 billion was falsely accounted for as part of the bank’s customer deposits in preliminary accounts published on December 3rd 2008, therefore misleading the market as to Anglo’s true strength.
Bowe (54) from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer (67) of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary and Casey (58) from Raheny, Dublin were convicted in June 2016 on the conspiracy to defraud charges. On Thursday , Devina Brady, for The Central Bank, acknowledged that the bank had a watching brief throughout the 87-day-trial but said while it was “a helpful summary” the bank required the more formal transcripts.
Counsel referred Judge O’Connor to the written submissions she had handed in earlier in the week, which she said set out the “public function”of the bank. She said it had “a gatekeeper role” and that this was in keeping with the fitness and probity Regime introduced by the Central Bank under the Central Bank Reform Act 2010. This applies to persons in senior positions within regulated financial service providers (RFSPs) and also applies to RFSPs who are obliged to ensure that their senior personnel comply with the fitness and probity regime.
Ms Brady said numerous individuals had given evidence during the course of the trial and the bank wanted the transcripts to allow them to assess the evidence. Judge O’Connor said it was a trial which was administered in public in accordance with the constitution and the law. She noted that neither the Director of Public Prosecutions nor David Drumm were consenting to or objecting to the application by the Central Bank.
The judge said the handing over of the material was necessary for the purpose of doing justice and she could see no legal prejudice in allowing the Central Bank have access to what they had requested. She said she was granting the application.
She said it had been a lengthy trial and it was clearly in the public interest that the fitness and probity regime adopted by the Central Bank be facilitated by allowing them access to transcripts of the entire trial and the exhibits involved in the case.
