Bank audit chief ‘unaware of €7.2bn deal’

THE chairman of Irish Life and Permanent’s audit committee was unaware of a €7.2billion deal with Anglo Irish Bank until months after it took place, a jury has heard.

Breffni Byrne said he would have expected it to be discussed prior to it happening, due to the size and nature of the transaction, which took place in September 2008.

‘I remember there was something about it in the [news] paper and maybe a week later, on February 12, 2008, we were given the full facts,’ he said. Former Anglo CEO David Drumm is accused of creating the deal to make it look like Anglo’s deposits were €7.2billion larger than they really were.

Mr Byrne was giving evidence on day 65 of Mr Drumm’s trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Yesterday, Mr Byrne told Paul O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, that the transaction between Anglo and ILP in September 2008 was unusual in nature as it was a cash-for-cash deal.

‘If anything had happened it would have ended up in court,’ he said.

Mr Drumm, 51, of Skerries, Co. Dublin, accepts the transactions took place between Anglo and ILP in 2008 but disputes that they were fraudulent or dishonest.

He has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo. He also denies false accounting.

The trial continues before Judge Karen O’Connor and a jury.