Anglo will not seek to replace official assignee in FitzPatrick bankruptcy

ANGLO IRISH Bank will not proceed in court today to have a trustee, an insolvency practitioner, appointed in place of the official assignee to realise the estate of former chairman Seán FitzPatrick.

The appointment of a trustee would have given a greater degree of control to Anglo over the process. However, the bank requires the support of three-fifths of the creditors – both in value and number – to secure the appointment of their nominated trustee, KPMG partner Kieran Wallace.

Anglo has more than 92 per cent of Mr FitzPatrick’s debts but seven of the 12 creditors admitted in the bankruptcy proceedings that they support the retention of the official assignee.

Two creditors, Cove Capital, which is controlled by former Anglo non-executive director Lar Bradshaw, and the Revenue Commissioners are not voting.

Among the creditors in support of the retention of the official assignee are Mr FitzPatrick’s wife Catriona, who is owed €53,568.

Given that the bank will not proceed with its attempt to appoint a trustee the official assignee will be left in place to realise Mr FitzPatrick’s estate in full for the benefit of creditors.

It is understood that the official assignee is expected to apply to the court to make null and void any transactions carried out by Mr FitzPatrick in the two years prior to him being declared bankrupt that reduce the value of his assets.

Among the creditors to have opposed the appointment of a trustee are Friends First which is owed €3.4 million and AIB, which is owed €1.5 million.

The official assignee, Chris Lehane, has brought a number of issues to creditors’ attention ahead of today’s hearing.

It is understood that he has said a restructuring of Mr FitzPatrick’s loans from Anglo Irish that was carried out in February 2009 may now need to be reviewed in light of his subsequent bankruptcy. At the time, the bank was being run by its chairman Donal O’Connor, who was acting as executive chairman following the departure of chief executive David Drumm.

Under the terms of the restructuring – which was agreed shortly after the bank was nationalised – the bank obtained greater security over Mr FitzPatrick’s most valuable asset; a stake in a Nigerian oil field.

In return the bank limited its right of recourse against members of Mr FitzPatrick’s family who also owed the bank money. The bank has released its lien over a €21 million deposit he had with the bank.