Final submissions filed in Drumm’s US bankruptcy case

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, previously Anglo Irish Bank, and its former chief executive David Drumm have filed final documents in his US bankruptcy case ahead of a judge deciding whether he should have his multi-million euro debts discharged.

Lawyers for both sides submitted lengthy documents to the Massachusetts bankruptcy court outlining their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, summarising their respective cases after a six-day trial in Boston in May that heard testimony from six witnesses.

The statements, which run to 167 pages in the case of the bank’s submission and 69 pages in the filing by Mr Drumm’s lawyers, set out the reasons for and against his debts of more than €10 million being discharged, granting him a debt-free financial start.

The bank, which is owed €8.5 million by Mr Drumm, is seeking to block his discharge from bankruptcy, claiming that he failed to disclose €2 million in cash and property transfers to his wife Lorraine and he lied under oath by omitting those transfers from financial statements.

Mr Drumm vigorously contested the bank’s claims, saying that the omissions were simple mistakes and that he had not been told by his financial advisers that he should have disclosed certain transfers.

Lawyers for the bank said in their submission that the former banker’s omissions in his bankruptcy statements and his false testimony at the trial “entirely undermine” his credibility as a witness and render his testimony “completely unbelievable”.

Mr Drumm’s lawyers rebutted each of the bank’s allegations against their client in his post-trial submissions and claimed that he should not be denied a discharge because it was never his intent to make a false oath given that he relied in good faith on the advice of his counsel.

Judge Frank Bailey is not expected to make a decision in the case until some time in the autumn.