FORMER ANGLO Irish Bank chief David Drumm faces the loss of his Boston home, his Cape Cod holiday home and his former Dublin home as the bankruptcy official in charge of his financial affairs has claimed he transferred property to his wife to defraud his creditors.
The court-appointed trustee, lawyer Kathleen Dwyer, has issued fresh legal proceedings against Mr Drumm, his wife Lorraine and her friend, Anne Marie Greenberg, who managed a “sham trust” used to buy their Boston home.
Ms Dwyer claims that assets were moved beyond the reach of Mr Drumm’s creditors by engaging in a series of transfers to his wife.
From September 2008, as the Irish banking crisis deteriorated, Ms Drumm opened 15 accounts in eight banks in her sole name. Cash was transferred to the couple’s joint accounts or her own accounts, the trustee has claimed.
Mr Drumm has yet to respond to a litany of allegations made by the trustee and Anglo Irish Bank in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Ms Dwyer said in a new complaint filed in the US court that she intends to sell Mr Drumm’s home in the Boston suburb of Wellesley, the property at Stage Neck Road in Cape Cod purchased for $4.2 million and his former home in the Abington estate in Malahide.
She claimed that Ms Drumm gave her husband “a fictitious loan” of $210,000 which was sourced from his earnings. The loan was “a sham transaction” to invest in Mr Drumm’s new business in the US to qualify for a temporary visa, and the funds were used as “a personal piggybank” to spend on his personal finances and “to disguise and conceal the transfers made to Mrs Drumm”.
Ms Drumm is entitled to half the proceeds from the sale of the family’s home in Boston but the trustee is objecting to any money being paid to her. The trustee and Anglo have asked the Massachusetts court not to allow Mr Drumm a fresh financial start as he failed to co-operate in the proceedings and concealed assets. Mr Drumm filed for bankruptcy in October 2010 to protect himself from Anglo’s pursuit of him over loans of €8.6 million.
A judge will determine whether Mr Drumm should be discharged from bankruptcy in what is expected to be a lengthy trial.
