Drumm gets no extra time in prison over illegal loans

DAVID Drumm will not serve any extra time in jail for his role in an illegal loans-for-shares scheme.

The former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank admitted allowing Anglo to give unlawful loans to the ‘Maple Ten’ group of developers and businessmen so they could buy shares in the bank and prop up their price.

Yesterday, Judge Karen O’Connor handed down a 15-month sentence, but ordered that he should serve it at the same time as a prison term he is already serving, meaning that no extra time will be added to his jail term.

Drumm, 51, of Skerries, Co. Dublin, pleaded guilty last month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to ten counts of authorising the loans, which were part of a scheme designed to unwind a secret 28% stake Cavan businessman Seán Quinn had in the bank.

Drumm is already serving six years after a jury convicted him last month of false accounting and conspiring to carry out a €7.2billion fraudulent loan scheme to give the impression deposits in Anglo’s accounts were larger than they actually were.

As an automatic consequence of his conviction for a breach of the Companies Act yesterday, Drumm is disqualified from acting as a company director for five years.

Judge O’Connor said yesterday that Drumm was the CEO of the bank and it was up to him to ensure transparency and compliance with the law.

He was the instigator of the scheme which could have resulted in financial loss to people who bought shares in the bank, the judge said.

‘The market was misled,’ she said. She added that the situation was created by Seán Quinn, when he speculated with a financial instrument linked to 28% of the bank’s shares, thereby destabilising the shares. She said there was evidence that the Financial Regulator knew and was concerned about the Quinn position and wanted it addressed.

She said there was a degree of ambiguity over what the regulator knew about the Maple Ten lending.