FORMER ANGLO Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has sought to dismiss an action stopping him walking away from bankruptcy with a clean slate on the basis the challenge was filed 51 minutes after a court deadline.
Mr Drumm filed a motion to dismiss an application by the trustee in his bankruptcy proceedings, Boston lawyer Kathleen Dwyer, arguing she filed a lawsuit against him at 5.21pm on August 31st after a deadline for filing complaints passed at 4.30pm that day.
“As a result, the trustee’s complaint is untimely and must be dismissed,” Mr Drumm said in a filing submitted to the Massachusetts courts on November 11th.
Ms Dwyer claimed in her August 31st lawsuit against Mr Drumm he failed to disclose numerous property and financial transactions involving his wife.
In September, Ms Dwyer issued a lawsuit against Mr Drumm, his wife Lorraine and Anne Marie Greenberg, a friend of Ms Drumm’s who manages a trust used by them to buy and retain ownership of their Boston home. The aim was to overturn transfers Ms Dwyer claimed were fraudulent, and to sell properties owned by the couple.
Ms Dwyer claimed Mr Drumm had intimate knowledge of Anglo’s deteriorating financial condition from September 2008, and transferred more than $2 million in cash to his wife and interest in a seaside property near Boston.
In response, Mr Drumm and his wife Lorraine have lodged filings over the past week through new lawyers, denying the allegations and challenging attempts to block Mr Drumm being discharged as a bankrupt.
The couple deny allegations made by Ms Dwyer that they had failed to disclose asset transfers.
Ms Drumm admitted their family home in the Boston suburb of Wellesley was purchased through a trust managed by her friend, Ms Greenberg, for $2 million, including cash of $831,000.
She denied the trust was used to hide Mr Drumm’s interest in the house or that the cash to purchase it came from the fraudulent transfer of her husband’s earnings and property interests to her in 2008 and 2009.
A Boston judge will decide at a trial whether Mr Drumm should be granted a clean financial start.
