Drumm drops US extradition battle, will return to face charges

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has thrown in the towel on his fight against extradition from the United States.

The Dubliner has decided to abandon his challenge against being sent back to Ireland and to return home to fight charges against him.

The 49-year-old former banker was walked by US Marshals into Courtroom 17 in the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse on Boston’s seafront, with his hands cuffed behind his back and wearing white trainers, ankle shackles and what appeared to be green prison scrubs.

He nodded to his lawyer Daniel Fetterman, his only attorney in court, as the cuffs were removed. Unlike previous court appearances, family members, friends and supporters were not present in court.

Shortly afterwards he was cuffed and walked out again for a brief delay. He was walked in again and sat next to his lawyer.

Mr Fetterman told Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell that Mr Drumm “would like to waive his right to a probable cause hearing and consent to extradition” under the treaty between Ireland and the US.

The judge asked Mr Drumm a series of questions to determine that he had come to the decision voluntarily. He then signed a three-page affidavit in which the Dubliner waived his right to fight extradition.

Judge Cabell said that he would sign a certificate of extraditability in the next 24 hours paving the way for his return to Ireland.

Mr Fetterman asked the court to "keep the record open" to allow Mr Drumm to attend a Boston facility before his return to Ireland to be biometrically tested along with his wife and two daughters as part of their application for a US residency green card.

The hearing took just 16 minutes.

Mr Drumm’s court appearance was his fourth in the US extradition proceedings and comes after two failed attempts to seek bail.

The decision to end his battle against extradition means Mr Drumm’s next court appearance will likely be in Dublin, where he faces 33 charges relating to transactions carried out while he ran Anglo as the bank edged towards collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.

He is accused of offences including forgery, conspiracy and false accounting for loans advanced in 2008 designed to buttress Anglo’s plunging share price as the global financial crisis reached Irish shores.

The former bank chief has been held in custody since his arrest on October 10th last, spent mostly in the maximum-security Plymouth County Correctional Facility, about an hour's drive south of Boston.

It is expected to take several weeks to arrange Mr Drumm’s return to Ireland and to co-ordinate his handover with the Irish authorities.

He is leaving Massachusetts where, he told the court at a previous hearing, his family have “had our heart for the longest time”.