David Drumm: from• locked up to lockdown
IT WAS a case of locked-up to lockdown for former jailbird banker David Drumm yesterday.
The ex-Anglo boss made a morning coffee run as he enjoyed his first days of freedom.
The banker took a spin to the shops in a 181-registration Land Rover with his wife near their home in the north Dublin seaside town of Skerries.
After being released from jail for his role in a €7.2bn fraud, Mr Drumm stayed in the Land Rover Sport – which would be worth around €80,000 second-hand – while his wife Lorraine nipped in to get some Saturday morning takeaway coffees. Wearing a mask, she returned with hot drinks for herself and her husband, who she stood by throughout his arrest and trial.
While the rest of the country might feel the constraints of the 5km restricted exercise limit – Mr Drumm seemed happy to be able to spread his wings that far.
The ex-CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, who was locked up for his role in the multibillion euro fraud, was released from the low-security prison at Loughan House in Blacklion, Co. Cavan, this week after serving three years and four months behind bars.
He spent two years and eight months in an Irish jail and almost six months in US prisons as he fought extradition. After he was shipped back to Ireland, he faced 33 charges, including forgery, conspiracy to defraud and false accounting linked to Anglo transactions in 2007 and 2008, when it was scrambling to avoid collapse.
He moved with his family to lush Wellesley in Massachusetts in June 2009, half a year after stepping down from the bank.
Mr Drumm was given a six-year sentence in 2018 – getting credit for the five and a half months served in the US – for his role in the fraud. He will be able to keep his €4.4m pension fund – despite owing at least €13m to creditors. Anglo Irish Bank had tried to recover some of the money he owed but he countersued, claiming ‘mental distress’ and then declared bankruptcy before the case could be resolved.
He was forced to give up other assets his creditors claimed through the courts – including a mansion in Malahide, worth €2.5m and a home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, valued at €5m. The properties were sold quickly and earned €1.5m and €3.3m respectively for his creditors.
Banker able to keep his €4.4m pension fund