Politics of case underestimated, claims David Drumm

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has claimed that his bankruptcy lawyer in the US might have "underestimated" the political motivations behind the bank's decision to pursue "adverse proceedings" against him since 2009.

The assessment emerges in a new document filed by Mr Drumm yesterday in his appeal to a decision by a US court in November to deny his discharge from bankruptcy on numerous grounds.

Mr Drumm hired Steward Grossman, a partner in law firm Looney & Grossman, to represent him in his bankruptcy after a proposed settlement with Anglo broke down when the Irish Government vetoed the deal in favour of litigation.

Anglo was later merged into Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which has challenged his bankruptcy.

“What Mr Grossman may have underestimated is the highly political motivations of the plaintiff, IBRC, which was wholly unconcerned with commercial matters and focused on a defeat of Mr Drumm at any cost,” Mr Drumm’s appeal document states.

“The fact that the plaintiff did not produce a single shred of evidence of Mr Drumm’s supposed wrongdoing from their own discovery, and relied entirely on what Mr Drumm himself had voluntary provided to them, must underpin Mr Drumm’s position and undermine the plaintiffs’,” his filing states.

Last November, the US court rejected Mr Drumm’s appeal against his failed bankruptcy bid.

US district court judge Leo Sorokin agreed with bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey that Mr Drumm's failure to disclose his transfer of a €250,000 mortgage on a property in Skerries in December 2008 to his wife amounted to "misdirection and dishonesty".

Fraudulent

The judge said Mr Drumm’s failure to list assets was done to hinder or delay and the argument that this was intentional and fraudulent was “wholly logical, plausible and supported by the record”.

Mr Drumm’s document argues that the bankruptcy court’s findings of fact were “illogical, implausible, and are without support in the record”.

Mr Drumm returned to Ireland in March and faces two trials next year in relation to alleged offences committed while he was chief executive with Anglo.