High Court disqualification for ex-NIB senior manager

A FORMER senior manager of National Irish Bank (NIB) has been disqualified by the High Court for three years from involvement in the management of any company on grounds of unfitness, arising from the findings of the investigation into the 1990s tax evasion scandal in the bank.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy yesterday imposed the three-year disqualification period on Michael Keane, (52), Corr Castle, Howth, Co Dublin who was NIB's former general manager of banking and general manager of marketing and distribution during the mid-1990s, and was also a board member of National Irish Bank Financial Services Ltd (NIBFS).

Last month, Mr Justice Murphy ruled that Mr Keane, as part of senior management within NIB and NIBFS, shared responsibility for certain failures of management during the entire 10-year period of investigation by court-appointed inspectors.

The judge made a disqualification order under Section 160 of the Companies Act against Mr Keane on the basis that his conduct as an officer of the company made him unfit to be concerned in the management of a company. However, the judge also said there was no evidence that Mr Keane was guilty of any breach of his duty as an officer of the company.

Yesterday, the judge said he considered a five-year period of disqualification was appropriate but, after taking into account the facts of Mr Keane's case and the mitigating factors, he would reduce that to three years.

The judge said there was no finding against Mr Keane in relation to fictitious non-resident accounts or the overcharging of interest, and Mr Keane was also not a director of the bank.

He also accepted that Mr Keane had made efforts to remedy matters at the bank.

Earlier, in submissions for Mr Keane, Lyndon MacCann SC said that, since these court proceedings were brought against his client, a married man with four children, his income had dropped dramatically and his health had suffered.

Counsel said the court's findings against his client were in relation to his failure to take steps that were adequate to deal with matters he knew about or ought to have known about.

The application for disqualification orders is one of several brought against former NIB directors and managers by the Director of Corporate Enforcement arising from the investigation by inspectors into the affairs of NIB and NIBFS between the late 1980s and the 1990s.

The inspectors concluded in 2004 that NIB and NIBFS were involved in a number of improper practices and that a number of members of senior management bore responsibility for some of these practices.

They concluded that certain senior management figures failed to deal decisively with bogus non-resident accounts, the improper charging of interest and CMI policies.