Drumm pleads guilty to giving unlawful loans to clients in last Anglo case

THE disgraced ex-chief executive of the former Anglo Irish Bank has admitted providing unlawful loans to the so-called Maple 10 group of businessmen during the 2008 financial crisis.

David Drumm, who was last week jailed for six years for his part in a €7.2bn fraud conspiracy at Anglo, yesterday pleaded guilty to 10 charges of giving unlawful financial assistance to the 10 businessmen to buy shares in the bank.

Judge Karen O’Connor adjourned the case for sentencing next month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. As the remaining 21 counts are being withdrawn by the prosecution, there are now no further criminal cases against Drumm or any other Anglo executives to be dealt with by the courts.

Drumm (51) entered guilty pleas when he was arraigned before Judge O’Connor.

He was produced from custody in Mountjoy Prison. Dressed in a white polo shirt and blue jeans, he stood in the dock and clasped his hands in front of him as the 10 charges were read out by a court registrar.

He admitted authorising or permitting Anglo to give unlawful financial assistance for the purchase of shares to Brian O’Farrell, Gerard Conlon, Gerry Gannon, Gerard Maguire, John McCabe, Joe O’Reilly, Paddy Kearney, Paddy McKillen, Seamus Ross and Sean Reilly on dates in July 2008. “Guilty,” he replied to each count.

The loans were part of a scheme designed to unwind a secret 25pc stake businessman Sean Quinn (inset) had built up in the bank using financial instruments called contracts for difference.

Drumm had been due to face trial in October but that date has now been vacated.

Prosecution counsel Paul O’Higgins SC said the DPP’s intention was to withdraw 21 further charges on the indictment against Drumm.

His sentencing will bring to an end a nine-year criminal investigation into the affairs of Anglo Irish Bank.

In a statement, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), which led the inquiry, said yesterday’s events brought a conclusion to its decade-long involvement in matters relating to Anglo. The statement acknowledged there were “certain failures” in the investigation and prosecution, in a separate case, of former Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick. He was acquitted of all charges. However, it said these issues were confined to one of the several investigations conducted by the ODCE. Other inquiries resulted in the conviction of several people.

“Those outcomes are clearly evidence that there is both the appetite and the capacity on the part of the ODCE to tackle serious criminal wrongdoing,” the statement said.

Drumm was jailed last week on conspiracy to defraud and false accounting charges.

Those charges arose from a separate inquiry, led by Garda fraud detectives.

A jury found him guilty of both charges by unanimous verdict two weeks earlier, after a trial that lasted nearly five months. He had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud by dishonestly creating the impression that Anglo’s customer deposits were €7.2bn larger than they really were in September 2008.

That case centred on a series of interbank deposits that circulated between Anglo and Irish Life & Permanent.

Drumm had also denied false accounting, by providing misleading information to the market in December 2008.

His sentencing will bring an end to a nine-year criminal investigation into the affairs of Anglo Irish Bank