Ex-bank chiefs lose appeal against fraud convictions

TWO former banking chiefs have lost appeals against their convictions for a €7.2billion conspiracy to defraud the public.

John Bowe, former head of capital markets with Anglo Irish Bank, and Denis Casey, former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, were attempting to overturn last year’s verdict. A jury had found them guilty of a scheme to mislead the public, investors and depositors about the true health of Anglo, by arranging a series of circular transactions between the two banks in 2008.

The men were at the Court of Appeal yesterday to hear the judgment, along with former Anglo finance director Willie McAteer, who had also been convicted during the same trial at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Mr Justice Seán Ryan, president of the Court of Appeal, said Mr Casey and Mr Bowe’s legal teams deserved credit for their ‘industry’ and ‘ingenuity’ in their defence.

But the court concluded that despite the ‘Herculean efforts by counsel and the myriad of issues raised’, the judges were satisfied that the trial was satisfactory and the convictions safe. Judge Ryan said the lengthy and complex trial ultimately turned on issues before the jury that were properly dealt with by the judge at the time.

Judge Ryan, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the appeals must be dismissed.

Before it was eclipsed by the collapsed trial of former Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick earlier this year, the 2016 trial of Bowe, 53, Casey, 57, and McAteer, 66, was one of the longest in the history of the State, lasting from January until the end of June that year.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Bowe to two years in prison and Casey to two years and nine months on July 29, 2016.

Casey will now appeal the severity of his sentence. Counsel for Bowe confirmed he will not be appealing his sentence.