Judge’s comments from David Drumm bankruptcy case

Extract of damning report from Judge Bailey shows true character of Drumm

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has been denied a write-off of more than € 10 million in debts by a US Judge.

What is more chilling than the decision is the way in which Judge Frank Bailey describes the banker's activity.

According to the judge, Mr Drumm was “not remotely credible;” his conduct was “knowing and fraudulent,” and his statements to the Boston bankruptcy court were “replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect and outright lies.”

Here we look at some of the more damning comments from his report.

  • "The overall sense is of a man casting about for any plausible answer but the truth,"
  • "Drumm showed great concern about details, appearances and minimising the richness of his profile".
  • "(Drumm is) a quick thinker, adept in testimony intended to deflect, misdirect, avoid, fabricate."
  • "I have no trouble finding him capable of the kind of stupidity of which he stands accused,"
  • Both Mr Drumm and his wife were "motivated first and foremost" by a desire to shelter their assets from seizure by Mr Drumm's creditors, especially Anglo, the Judge said.
  • "Over a period of two years, while insolvent and facing legal action on $11 million of debt by IBRC, he had carefully transferred considerable value in cash and real estate to Mrs Drumm, to keep it from IBRC."
  • "As for Mrs Drumm, I do not believe that she was motivated by a need for protection from possible alienation from Drumm any more than she was motivated by a fear of Drumm's creditors."
  • "Drumm is intelligent, very sophisticated in the kinds of accounting and financial issues he was addressing in [his bankruptcy statements], meticulous, involved in the details of his bankruptcy filing, controlling, not one who would simply turn these matters over to counsel to handle for him."
  • "The variety and inconsistency of his diverse answers, and the lack of conviction with which he delivered each, undercut whatever credibility any one of them might have enjoyed had it stood alone."