Drumm bankruptcy trial delayed again in Boston

The bankruptcy trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm to decide whether he should be given a fresh financial start may be pushed back as far as January 2014.

A lawyer for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank which is now in liquidation, has told a Boston court that the bank's liquidators, Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of KPMG, were "fully up to speed" on the case against Mr Drumm.

Attorney Ken Leonetti, for the bank, asked Judge Frank Bailey for an additional 60 days, until July, to allow for additional discovery of information between the parties as the two sides "work through the issues".

Mr Drumm's lawyer, Frank Morrissey, said that his client consented to the additional time sought.

The judge said that if they came back in July following discovery he would not be able to give them a trial date until January, though he said he had trial dates available in the autumn if they returned earlier.

The discovery process is unlikely to be completed in time for a trial in September or October, he was told. The judge allowed the two sides to discuss a timeframe for discovery deadlines in the case.

Mr Drumm did not attend the case status hearing in the US bankruptcy court for the District of Massachusetts today, which lasted less than five minutes.

The State-owned bank and the trustee liquidating Mr Drumm’s bankruptcy estate are suing the former bank chief executive claiming that he fraudulently failed to disclose money and property transfers to his wife. Mr Drumm disputes the allegations.

His trial has been rescheduled twice. It was originally due to have been heard in January 2013 and was later put back until June 2013 before the surprise liquidation of the bank in February further the delayed the trial.

The latest postponement was sought as both sides, citing the “unexpected and extenuating circumstances” arising from the liquidation of IBRC by the Government on February 7th.

In October 2010 Mr Drumm filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts, where he was living at the time, after failing to reach a settlement with the bank over a debt of more than €8.5 million, most of which was borrowed to buy shares in the bank.

Should Mr Drumm's bankruptcy trial proceed in January, the hearing would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the bank's nationalisation and may run at the same time as the criminal trial against his one-time colleagues – former Anglo executives Seán FitzPatrick, Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer.

The three men’s trial is scheduled to start in January. They have been accused of giving unlawful financial assistance, prohibited under company law, to 16 people – six family members of businessman Seán Quinn and 10 customers of the bank, known as the Maple 10 – to buy shares in Anglo.

Mr Drumm resigned as chief executive of the bank in December 2008 after it emerged that Mr FitzPatrick, the bank’s chairman, had concealed multi-million euro loans with the bank over a period of several years.