David Drumm appeals after US judge denies bankruptcy claim

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has appealed the decision of a US judge to deny him the opportunity under American bankruptcy law to walk away from €10.5 million in debts.

Mr Drumm filed legal papers seeking to overturn last week's ruling by US bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey to deny him a discharge from bankruptcy that would have allowed him to avoid repaying his debts.

The judge handed down a damning 122-page ruling against Mr Drumm after deliberating for seven months following a six-day trial last summer.

He found that Mr Drumm (48) was “not remotely credible” and his conduct “knowing and fraudulent”. His statements to the court were “replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect and outright lies”, the judge said.

Filing papers within the 14-day period to appeal, Mr Drumm has elected to have his appeal heard by the US district court, another federal court outside the bankruptcy courts, rather than by a bankruptcy appellate panel, a federal court panel consisting of three bankruptcy judges.

Mr Drumm moved to the US in 2009, six months after he resigned from Anglo. He filed for bankruptcy in October 2010 after failing to reach a settlement with the bank on debts of €8.5 million.

Publicly owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, brought a legal action in 2011, seeking to block a write-off of his debts.

The bank claimed he fraudulently transferred more than €1 million in cash and property to his wife to keep money from creditors.

The judge found Mr Drumm systemically transferred assets to his wife to hinder, delay and defraud his creditors. He ruled that there were 30 counts against him on which cause had been established by the bank to deny him a discharge.