Jury resumes deliberations in trial of four ex-Anglo executives

A jury resumes deliberations today in the trial of four former Anglo Irish Bank executives accused of conspiring to mislead investors as to the financial health of the bank at the time of the 2008 banking crisis.

The jury began hearing evidence in January in what is understood to be the longest trial in the history of the State.

Peter Fitzpatrick (63) of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin; Denis Casey (56), from Raheny, Dublin; John Bowe (52) from Glasnevin, Dublin, and Willie McAteer (65) of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co Tipperary, have all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a €7.2 billion circular transaction scheme between March 1st and September 30th, 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.

Mr Fitzpatrick is a former director of finance at Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) and Mr Casey is ILP’s former chief executive. Mr Bowe is a former head of capital markets at Anglo, while Mr McAteer is Anglo’s former finance director.

A jury of 15 people was sworn in last January to allow for any fall-off during the lengthy trial. After the judge’s charge on Tuesday, the 13 remaining jurors took part in a lottery where the final name pulled out of a tin was told he had to be excluded from deliberations.

"It's cruel for you that this new system was brought in for long trials. You're free to go now and you must go now," Judge Martin Nolan told the man at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Circular €1 billion transactions

The prosecution case is that the four men were involved in setting up a scheme of circular €1 billion transactions where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

The prosecution says the entire objective of the scheme was to mislead the public reading Anglo’s accounts by artificially inflating customer deposits from €44 billion to €51 billion.

“Before you can convict these four men of anything you must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the scheme and the way it was accounted for... is a dishonest scheme,” Judge Martin told the jury.

He said once satisfied the scheme was dishonest, they must be satisfied the four defendants either authorised or were involved in the execution of the scheme.

The judge said the defence had presented their clients as good, decent men who had tried to do their best for the Irish financial system during the 2008 crisis. The jury had to decide whether in doing so they committed a crime.