FitzPatrick had €22m pension pot when he left Anglo CEO role

FORMER Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick had a €22m pension fund from Anglo Irish Bank when he retired as CEO in 2005, he told the High Court.

He and his wife Catriona took €5m of that out in cash and used it to help fund investments, he said.

The court is deciding whether Ms FitzPatrick has a €6m beneficial interest in 18 assets.

Mr FitzPatrick began giving evidence yesterday in support of his wife’s case against Chris Lehane, the official assignee (OA) in bankruptcy, claiming she has that €6m interest.

Mr Lehane has brought a separate related case against Ms FitzPatrick and the couple’s three children, David, Jonathan and Sara.

IBRC, which took over Anglo, has brought separate related proceedings against Ms FitzPatrick, in which it denies she is entitled to claim monies loaned to fund asset investments.

Asked by the FitzPatrick counsel, Jacqueline O’Brien, to summarise his assets before he retired as CEO, he said there were the shares, the family home in Greystones, Co Wicklow, and a number of investments. “We were very, very comfortable,” he said.

Between 2003 and 2009, he and his wife signed a number of loan facility letters whereby their loans eventually grew to €120m.

However, some of the later letters provided a number of items, including property and other investments, as additional security for the renewed loan facilities. By 2007 there were 29 items of additional security, none which was part of the disputed 18 assets before the court, he said.

The case resumes on Tuesday.