Anglo exec called transaction ‘funny stuff’

AN ANGLO Irish Bank official described transactions during the banking crisis as ‘funny stuff’, a court has heard.

Tapes of calls recorded at Anglo in 2008 were played to the jury yesterday in the trial of the bank’s former CEO, David Drumm. Mr Drumm was not on any of the calls.

Anglo’s former head of liquidity, Ciaran McArdle, was giving evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The jury heard Mr McArdle say that ‘all those guys supposed to do us special favours’ had fallen away by September 2008, leaving only Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) as a viable option for a back-to-back loan. Mr McArdle told an official at Anglo that, except for ILP, monies from other banks should be treated as corporate funding ‘as they’re only doing it because of the government guarantee’.

In a call on September 25, 2008, Mr McArdle discussed the transaction with a manager at ILP. ‘I know I can’t do f ***** g six yards of funny stuff,’ Mr McArdle said. He told the jury a yard is slang for ‘a billion’.

Mr Drumm, 51, of Skerries, Co. Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud Anglo depositors and investors by ‘dishonestly’ creating the impression deposits in 2008 were €7.2billion larger than they were.

He also denies false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo’s 2008 deposits were €7.2billion larger than they were.

The trial continues.