David Drumm ‘donned the green jersey’ during financial crash

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm answered Ireland’s call when he received it during the financial crisis and did not engage in any hookery or crookery, his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.

Closing speeches concluded on Friday in the 51-year-old’s trial on charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, which has been running for 16 weeks.

Brendan Grehan SC, for Mr Drumm, said of the upshot of the alleged offences: “Nobody lost, nobody gained, nobody got rich, nobody got poor, and nobody is living on Caribbean island with ill-gotten gains as a result of these transactions.”

Mr Drumm, of Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) chief executive Denis Casey, Anglo’s then financial director Willie McAteer, Anglo’s then head of treasury John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by “dishonestly” creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were €7.2 billion larger than they were.

He has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3rd, 2008 by furnishing information to the market that Anglo’s deposits were €7.2 billion larger than they were. On the opening day of his trial Mr Drumm accepted that the multi-million euro transactions took place between Anglo and ILP in 2008 but disputes that they were fraudulent or dishonest.

‘Hindsight’

Mr Grehan said Mr Drumm answered Ireland’s call when it came, donned the green jersey and did not desert his post at Anglo.

“Judge him with what confronted him at time, not with 20:20 armchair hindsight,” he told the jury.

Counsel said the eyes of the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank, PWC and Anglo’s auditors EY passed over the transactions prior to their publication yet nobody raised a red flag.

“When it became apparent there was a problem, people immediately started running for cover because nobody wanted to be a part of this when things turned sour,” he said.

He said the titans of industry and the wise men who sat on the bank’s audit committee “missed” the transactions, yet Mr Drumm is being held criminally liable for them.

Lawyers for the State on Thursday told the jury that Mr Drumm had engaged in a massive con and that the accounting scheme used in the transactions was fraudulent and dishonest.

However, Mr Grehan said the case lacked all the hallmarks of conspiracy. He said it contained no trickery, no deception, no skulduggery and no secrecy.

“There was nobody standing over a shredder at Anglo, no whistleblowers saying they saw what happened and were then told to move to different job when they put their hand up,” he said.

Pressure

Colourful phone calls played throughout the trial showed people doing their job under severe pressure, and not individuals acting for personal profit, counsel said.

“The calls are not Mafia Dons discussing a crime with a bug underneath the table. They contain evidence of the transactions but not of conspiracy,” he said

He said his client acknowledges the preliminary accounts published in December 2008 should have included a note alongside the figures, explaining the transactions more clearly.

However, Mr Grehan insisted there was no crime, no fraud, no false accounting, no evidence of anyone having been misled and therefore there was no conspiracy.

“David Drumm is not proud of every decision he made, but he made them in good faith with no criminal motivation, while trying to save the bank,” Mr Grehan said.

Judge Karen O’Connor told jurors that she will commence her charge to them on Monday before they begin their deliberations.