GARDAÍ WERE last night called in to investigate the Anglo Irish Bank debacle by the Financial Regulator as the inquiry intensified into a criminal investigation.
The regulator said it had referred matters of “a serious nature” relating to possible abuse of stock-market rules at the bank to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
Gardaí are already assisting in a separate investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) into possible breaches of company law.
The regulator said in a statement that it had been involved in a number of investigations into the bank and “has concluded that certain matters are of such a serious nature that it was appropriate that they be referred to the Garda”.
Two of the three issues under investigation by the regulator – the deposit transfers of €7 billion into Anglo by Irish Life Permanent (ILP) and secret loans of €451 million to 10 Anglo customers to buy shares in the bank held indirectly by businessman Seán Quinn in order to prop up its share price – have been referred to the Garda.
The maximum penalty for market abuse offences is a €10 million fine and a 10-year prison sentence.
The regulator is still investigating hidden loans to Anglo’s former chair- man, Seán FitzPatrick, and his use of borrowings from Irish Nationwide Building Society to conceal the loans. “We will, of course, fully, assist the gardaí with the investigations. We will not be commenting further on these matters,” the regulator said.
Some 35 investigators from the regulator have been involved in the various Anglo inquiries, including 25 in the bank’s offices. The remaining 10 officials have been split between the offices of ILP and Irish Nationwide.
The referral of the regulator’s inquiry to the Garda came as the ODCE’s investigation into Anglo continued with a second day of searches at its Irish headquarters in Dublin yesterday.
The scandal at the nationalised bank claimed more casualties on the Irish corporate scene with further resignations. Former Anglo non-executive director Anne Heraty, chief executive of recruitment firm CPL, resigned yesterday from the boards of State companies Bord na Móna and Forfás.
Fifteen directors have now resigned from 22 boardroom positions in the fallout from the Anglo affair. In addition, former ILP senior executives Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick are preparing to step down as directors of the Irish arm of German insurer Allianz, in which ILP has an interest.
In a separate development, the Government raised a further €4 billion from investors in the international markets to fund the deepening hole in the public finances. The State’s money manager, the National Treasury Management Agency, sold three-year bonds, bringing to €10 billion the amount raised by the State this year to fund exchequer spending.
The agency last night raised to €25 billion its estimate of the amount the Government will need to raise this year to address the ballooning budget deficit. The cost of raising the €4 billion in funding is the second highest in Europe for three-year bonds; only Greece is paying a higher rate of interest.
The latest Government bonds were sold as Bank of Ireland announced the appointment of an internal candidate to succeed Brian Goggin as chief executive. The head of the bank’s Irish operations, Richie Boucher, will succeed Mr Goggin.