Drumm’s court plea for bail

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm directly appealed to US Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell on November 13th for his release on bail, pending his extradition hearing, which has been scheduled for March 1st, 2016.

Mr Drumm is fighting an extradition request for his return to Ireland to face 33 criminal charges relating to transactions at Anglo while he ran the bank.

Below are his remarks in making his case for his release to the court that day.

Drumm’s plea

“Good morning, your Honor.

I’m very grateful for this opportunity to very briefly address the court.

I want to give you a sense of my – and Attorney [Edward] McNally has dealt with it to an extent – myself and my family's history here in the United States.

We first came out to the Boston area around the summer or the early summer of 1998. I had been asked by the bank that I worked for, Anglo Irish Bank, to set up a new office for them. The bank then was primarily based in Ireland and in the UK, so it was a big deal to come over and open an American office, and, of course, Boston was chosen after some research on the basis of its Irish heritage and an Irish domiciled bank might be well received in the area.

So our second daughter was actually born that year, Abby. Sarah was about three years old when we moved over.

Suffice it to say, we loved living in Boston back then. We ended up living out in Sudbury [a suburb of the city]. We had a fantastic neighborhood, we made fantastic friends. Our children got into very good like formation schools, and we just loved being here. It was a wonderful time in our lives, perhaps maybe the happiest times in our lives, the five years we were here.

I was asked to come back to Ireland in 2003 to take up a more senior position within the bank, and we went back, after much debate within the family, we went back to Ireland I think in was June of that year.

Lost job

As Attorney McNally said, in December of 2008, I lost my job in the bank, and to be frank, it was instinctive in us to think about going back to Massachusetts. We – in the 17 years that had passed since we first came out here, 15 of them we've owned a home here. We have had our heart here for the longest time.

We came back because we felt it was good for the family, good for two girls in terms of their education and the lifestyle here, and we felt that I would have much better prospects of getting a good job here, which – all of which turned out to be the case.

I did not flee Ireland, and I reject the notion that I fled Ireland. Nobody was charging me with anything back then. I was free to come and go. We wanted to come back as a family, and, you know, after a lot of work getting visas and everything else, I think I was six or seven months out of the bank at that stage, we eventually packed up and came back here.

That was the year 2009. In that year, I went back twice, having moved the family back out here. I went back twice to meet with my former employer because I had outstanding loans and I needed to sit down and talk to them about how I was going to deal with those loans. So that was in the latter part of the year, I think October and November of that year. So I really do strongly reject the notion that somehow, you know, we ran away from Ireland. We did not.

Your Honor, the last six years or so have been very difficult for me. As you can imagine, they have been very difficult for my family. We have had what I can only describe as unprecedented media attention, sometimes quite intrusive, into the family, looking through the windows, knocking at the door. My children are not the better of that; I know they’re not.

Suffered

All of us have suffered in some way from it, but I feel for them because of the prevalence of social media and the whisper campaigns and so on, that’s been a big issue for them. But all that served to do at the end of the day was glue the family closer together.

Both of our families are in Ireland, I'm from a very big family, I've got seven siblings, my mother is alive. Lorraine has her parents in Ireland, she's got three siblings. I think between the two families there are 25 grandchildren. So it's a big sacrifice to be an emigrant. You leave that behind. Through the wonders of Skype, you can talk to them as much as you want, but it's not the same as being there.

Again, that’s probably glued the four us together in a unit in the most extraordinary way and, frankly, that’s what’s kept me sane and going in the last number of difficult years.

In relation to the extradition, Attorney McNally already alluded to it, that we knew about this. It was all over the Irish papers for a couple years, journalists calling for it, never mind mentioning that it might happen. Even political figures, when things heated up in my case, you know, screaming from the rafters to get him home.

Charges

So we kind of knew it was inevitable, that this was going to come. Then, when the press announced quite specifically about it in January of this year, they were able to mention the number of charges, they were able to mention sources in the government of Ireland, we knew that was real, and that’s why we approached the US authorities, to say, Look, I’m here, I live in Wellesley, I’ll come in, I’ll surrender, you can arrest me, whatever it takes, but this may come, and this is where you’re going to find me.

So, again, I didn’t run then, I’m not running now. I have no intention of going anywhere. I’m happy to work through all of the issues that I have with all of my heart and soul. The concept or even the theory that I would somehow take off and run away from my family right now is just an anathema to me because it’s the very center of my world. The three women, as Mr McNally said, are in my life. I believe all of my actions to date support that position.

Were I to flee now, I would be abandoning my wife of 24 years, I’d be abandoning my children, potentially derailing their education, pulling out financial support from them, never mind the damage that it would due to me personally. That’s something that I just could not take. So I say to you I would not even contemplate that.

Fortunate

I am – despite all that negativity, I am one very fortunate man in that the support I have from family here, my wife and kids, and the support I have from the family in Ireland is phenomenal. I also have phenomenal friends that I’ve known since I came to Massachusetts, and they put their heart and soul behind me here today by offering to support the bail application with their private homes and their own reputations because they know, they know me well, they know me for a long time, and they know that I am not going anywhere. I’m not going to do anything that would damage my family, that would break up my family. So I’m fortunate to have that support.

Your Honor, I’m asking the Court to let me out on bail on whatever conditions, restrictions, no matter how severe they have to be, so that I can be with my family, first of all, so that I can work and support my family, and that I can get through in an effective way this whole legal quagmire that I’m in which just cannot – I’ve had 33 days in jail to think about it, there is no way on earth I can do that from a jail cell, it’s too complex a matter, hence, I’m beseeching the Court.

Your Honor, that’s all I have to say. I thank you very much for the opportunity again.”