Anglo Probe Leads to Four Complaints

Anglo Probe Leads to Four Complaints

Formal complaints against former Anglo Irish Bank chairman and CEO Sean Fitzpatrick and David Drumm are to go to an accountancy watchdog’s disciplinary committee.

Following an investigation for the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board by former Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, the two men face complaints, along with the bank’s former finance director Willie McAteer and Irish Life & Permanent’s former finance director Peter Fitzpatrick.

Purcell looked at transactions by Irish Life & Permanent to Anglo which improved the bank’s accounts. He found that there was a prima facie case against all four men concerning these deposits.

He found no case against the men for the loan taken by ten businessmen to buy Anglo shares. However, there will be a prime facie against David Drumm for altering the terms of these loans.

Drumm, FitzPatrick, and McAteer also face formal complaints about a loan to McAteer in 2008.

Drumm and FitzPatrick will have to answer questions as to why loans to Fitzpatrick did not appear on Anglo’s books.

The hearing will likely be held in public in March of next year. The three-person disciplinary committee will have power to fine the four accountants and/or strike them off the list of chartered accountants in Ireland.