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Drumm defends role in Anglo collapse, says: ‘Everyone was on the same team’

Image: James Horan/Photocall ireland

DAVID DRUMM HAS said he has no intention of returning to Ireland and insists that the goings on at Anglo Irish Bank prior to its collapse were known at the very highest levels of the Irish government.

In an exclusive interview with Niall O’Dowd that features in today’s Sunday Business Post (paywall) and on IrishCentral.com, the former chief executive of Anglo Irish has given his take on a wide range of issues surround the now defunct bank which has cost the Irish taxpayer some €30 billion.

Drumm, who has been living in the US since 2009 following the collapse of the bank, said he would not be returning to Ireland because “there is a witch hunt on”.

He also insists that both the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator knew about the controversial ‘Maple 10′ deal where a so-called ‘golden circle’ of investors bought Anglo shares formerly controlled by Seán Quinn with loans from the bank.

Drumm maintains that Anglo did not mislead the government about their loan books on the night the bank guarantee was introduced but admits that the blanket guarantee by the last government in September 2008 was a mistake.

For more, read the full interview on IrishCentral.com >

Read: Drumm’s $4m Cape Cod mansion sold to pay off creditors >

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Comments (61 Comments)

  • Roman RomanOwski 27/11/11 #
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    Good idea- STAY AWAY DICK!

    Reply
  • Aine 27/11/11 #
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    In fairness the choice should not lie with him!

    Reply
  • John Murphy 27/11/11 #
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    He might be right you know. About the Government knowing about the goings on at Anglo I mean.

    O’Shea’s comment in the e-mail to Cardiff’s interview panel about the transfer of 7.3 Billion from IL&P to Anglo in 2008 to temporarily doctor the accounts is very telling.

    Takes a few disgruntled greedy senior civil servants to let the cat out of the bag when their claws are out.

    Reply
  • Chris Mcdonnell 27/11/11 #
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    The only place this man shouldn’t be coming home from is a prison cell.
    The fact him and his like have not seen a prison cell shows how high their crimes went and taints all our so called leaders as none of them are calling for criminal charges to be brought to bare.

    Reply
  • Yosser Hughes 27/11/11 #
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    And what about the others in government that were complicit ?

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    • Report this comment

      We will NEVER know because as with the previous government, the present one too is very slow – in fact now word at all – to say who was/is involved!

      …And that alone is VERY telling. They have too much too lose, in seat of power and even for a select few, in freedom from the possible confines of a prison cell!

    • Martin Mc Cormack 27/11/11 #
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      sending Mr Cardiff to brussels is part of the gig

    • John Murphy 27/11/11 #
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      Damn Right Martin. Giss a job – or I’ll squeal. Yeosser in a suit!

  • Sinead 27/11/11 #
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    Good enough for him….

    Reply
  • darren roche 27/11/11 #
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    If he were a Chinese banker he would be facing a firing squad

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  • Conor Oneill 27/11/11 #
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    Anglo cost us more than the Japanese tusuami, and nuclear disaster combined. AIB were nearly as bad . It’s fianiancial terrorism.

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    • Thomas M Bourke 27/11/11 #
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      If you read the article – Drumm hints that none of the Irish banks could get financing on the markets… will be interesting to see how large BoI and AIB’s NAMA dumping is in, oh, say 5 years

  • Ann Illing 27/11/11 #
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    Now if he is sure the very highest in government were aware of the goings on in Anglo I suggest he starts naming names and facts. Time some one did.

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    • Report this comment

      He won’t – its his “Get out of jail card” which he is playing – and at this time is using it as a reminder to those on this side of the water, not to go chase him too hard …or else!
      He would expect them to make the usual loud noises and banging of fists upon tables – but as regards he being further held accountable, extradited and/or up for further questioning?

      DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH!

  • Lou Brennan 27/11/11 #
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    The others that were complicit are indeed still here amongst us tucking in to their big fat turkey dinners laughing at the futility of these forums and the powerless Irish people they consistently fooled . Why we have a good old moan they continue to bank their big fat back-slapping lump sums and pensions out of all our pockets. Only something radical with assert the justice we crave and we need to make sure our children are equipped with a level of honour and integrity that once made this country proud.

    Reply
    • Martin Mc Cormack 27/11/11 #
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      Spot on , there are a lot of smug peoople strutting around with fat pensions or salaries and money offshore who are only too happy to see Drumm stay away

  • Report this comment

    Of course he’s not going to return – he fears getting arrested and/or questioned!

    As for who else is involved – I have NO DOUBTS that a lot of ministers themselves or via business partners, are involved in the shares/business of the then Anglo bank.
    The last thing they want is to be exposed too – so don’t expect any names to be named by this government some time soon…
    …Fear of their own being exposed too I additionally suspect!

    Hell, they still won’t say all of those involved in the “Golden Circle”, to is connected to the “Drumcondra Mafia” or a number of investment groups that were involved in property/banking deals!
    They have too much too lose if the public knew just how possible corrupt our political system has gotten and at the moment – by who EXACTLY!

    Reply
    • Declan Carroll 27/11/11 #
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      Drumm is holding all the ace cards. Nothing will happen to him. If they try, he’ll sing.

    • Report this comment

      Same thing I suspect as Mr Ahern and others that was allowed quietly slip away with their massive pensions and continuing perks!
      They know TOO much!

      The last thing any government wants is to see Mr Ahern in the dock. They know he might just decide that if he was going down, he would bring others with him in revenge and not go alone!

  • Shea Fitzgerald 27/11/11 #
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    What a coward. He ran away so, at some level so he knows he’s culpable. And as for him saying that others knew about the goings on at Anglo… Well, fine. Let’s round them ALL up and get to the bottom of this unnatural disaster. If they did nothing wrong, they have nothing to be scared of.

    Reply
  • RPB 27/11/11 #
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    I think he’s a great guy.

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  • cavanbythesea 27/11/11 #
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    What crimes could he be charged with? Apart from locking him up out of vengeance is there any legal basis to all this talk?

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    • Report this comment

      Any number of possible financial irregularities that might exist in legal terms?
      Any number of cases where fraud might be suspected?
      Any number of cases where ‘strange’ accounting practises are exposed and run in conflict to state and banking regulations?
      Any number of cases which might show he took personal payments/perks for favours given, off the official financial books?
      Any cases where he got rewarded for quiet unusual favours, that meant the tax man got to hear nothing about?
      And on and on…

    • Hot Toddy 27/11/11 #
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      There may well be. The Director of Corporate Enforcement is still investigating 3 years on. Maybe one day we’ll find out what was and wasn’t illegal.

  • Bazza 27/11/11 #
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    Theres a thing called due process. It means that a solid book of evidence must be gathered before someone can be brought to court and successfully convicted.
    This takes a lot of time if it is to be done correctly.

    I have no doubt the same people who bemoan the time it is taking, would be those who would criticise and ridicule if the case against him collapsed !

    The *current* government would love nothing more than to stitch him and the FF cabal of greed-junkies, who led us to this sorry place.

    ….lest we forget….

    Reply
    • Report this comment

      You have a very valid point – but then there is the notion that some might want to see either those that might expose them, see they get off by a time limit running out through the ‘Statue’s of Limitation’ or they just pass peacefully away with passing years?

  • Brian Daly 27/11/11 #
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    Interesting how these guys can easily and legally make a new home for themselves in the USA. The USA with their unregulated markets (by law) being the root cause of the financial mess the world is now. Far too often we blame the bankers or the last government or the ECB without looking at the seemingly untouchable system called “the markets” that’s the cause.

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  • Ed Appleby 27/11/11 #
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    Drumm is laughing all the way, he’s untouchable and he knows it, the Irish govt, are absolutely powerless and worse, absolute cowards because they have no intention or no desire to see either him or any of the others involved in the biggest financial swindle in Irish history to be brought to book because the truth is that the entire Irish govt, banking system and wealthy elite are all up to their necks in it. Anybody with even half a brain cell would know that top people in govt, and their crony friends would have known exactly what was going on in Anglo and AIB for that matter. The current govt, are s*** scared to pursue anyone because they know the real truth of what happened will be the tipping point at which the Irish people finally flip and go for those who have ruined their country and for many, their lives. Only when the real truth about the events surrounding the bank guarantee and who exactly knew what and when comes out will the true nature of this disaster become apparent and the people will finally see why it is was that Lenihen and Cowen were so determined to protect the bondholders and preserve the banks even at the price of destroying the country and it’s sovereignty. Only when the canaries start singing will we be able to finally hear the original tune and not the dubbed version which we have been fed and are still being fed.

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  • Rommel Burke 27/11/11 #
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    Headline should read, Drumm issues veiled threat to the other assorted greedy, self serving, treacherous leeches, “take me down and i’ll take you with me”
    That would be my take on it anyway.

    Reply
  • Adam Magari 27/11/11 #
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    Like many Anglo shareholders I read the annual reports, listened to reassurances from the Regulator and assumed that health statements from the Central Bank were reliable. I didn’t realise that for several years before nationalisation shareholders were effectively being encouraged to drink up a crock of sh*t. Senior figures in Anglo and several outside it, possibly including state agents, were at the centre of a raft of decisions and judgments that eventually left many retail shareholders with deep holes in their pockets and a good chunk of pension security gone down the drain. I read last week that a county council took someone to court for inadvertently leaving a cardboard box at some recycling bins. Must get our priorities in order. The fact that still NO ONE has been before the courts over activities in Anglo shows what a decrepit system is in place for dealing with really serious issues, ones that can lead to bankrupting an entire country. It would be fair to describe me as angry.

    Reply
  • jason bourne 27/11/11 #
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    This is a disgusting, vile little corrupt country… Everyone with their murky little secret’s in their past or little stroke they have pulled that they don’t want anyone to know of so they keep their mouths shut and let the country keep on riding us

    Reply
  • Chris Mcdonnell 27/11/11 #
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    Maybe he could be charged with fraud by doctoring 8billion into the balance sheet to con shareholders and investors.

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    • Hot Toddy 27/11/11 #
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      Maybe, but it’s really not clear whether they did anything “technically” wrong, although there’s no doubt is was immoral as hell. The accounting rules actually encourage companies to gross-up their assets and liabilities. However, in my view it breached the overriding requirement for accounts to show a “true and fair view” and Willie McAteer, the Finance Director, should be charged for falsifying the company’s financial position.

  • Randy savage 27/11/11 #
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    Nothing will be done about these gangsters reason being if one falls they all fall. Why arent people picketing the likes of Fitzpatricks house instead of standing in front of the dail these guys have it easy. Drumm Fingers and Fitzy would just roll over on their government puppet masters if they were brought to court.

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    • Declan Carroll 27/11/11 #
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      That’s a very good point, Randy. Camping out in Dame St isn’t going to amount to much. Camping outside Fitz’s house in posh Greystones may be more successful.

  • Chris Mcdonnell 27/11/11 #
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    What’s the pub in skerries, just to make sure I never spend a penny there

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  • Raymond Searson 27/11/11 #
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    Everyone was on the same team, = “I was following Orders” if you are serious come back to Ireland and face the music,

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  • Mark Power 27/11/11 #
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    If Drumm has nothing to hide he has nothing to fear he should come home and face the music

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  • Peter Carroll 27/11/11 #
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    An illegal act is an illegal act and it doesn’t matter if everyone from the mailroom upto the President new about it, a conspiracy to defraud shareholders and lenders is a crime.

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  • Frank2521 27/11/11 #
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    Like the mafia his family and in laws will be looked after for life. Will the tax inspectors investigate his family? I doubt it. Will the Garda question his family? I doubt it. You see Garda cars all the time at the travellers sites questioning everyone on site. Not the Drumms and his relatives.

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  • Frank2521 27/11/11 #
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    He more or less said in his article that he was bullied by Sean Fitzpatrick that he ruled Anglo with an iron fist. Well he didn’t stand up to Seanie and he won’t stand up to questions from the Irish people. Not a man of much substance just suitcases full of our money.

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  • WhistleblowerIRL 27/11/11 #
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    OF COURSE the government knew! And anyone who thinks that the current government has any more of an appetite for revealing the truth behind Ireland’s financial meltdown is a fool.

    The story of my resignation from UniCredit Bank Ireland was told on prime time TV in Australia 10 days ago. The Irish Financial Regulator still seems to be suffering from amnesia. Watch with your own eyes – click on ‘play video’ on this link:
    http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2011/s3367080.htm

    Here is the address of my blog which contains Michael Noonan’s denial that FG had ever heard of me, even though there are minutes of my meeting with a now Fine Gael minister at a solicitors’ office in Ballsbridge several MONTHS before the denial was issued:
    http://whistleblowerirl.blogspot.com/

    @ Frank Enstein, thank you :-)

    PS
    One has to wonder why RTE has logged onto my blog several times in the last 10 days, but has NEVER reported about this saga since it was raised in the Seanad almost TWO YEARS ago!

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    • Report this comment

      Because RTE knows its under threat from cuts and they are looking for yet another increase in their TV licence?
      They don’t in the background, want to be biting the hand that might feed them again eventually – if they are good little boys and girls?

    • WhistleblowerIRL 28/11/11 #
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      Indeed, the last thing RTE cam afford now is to tell the truth about how much it ‘forgot’ to report in the last 5 years. Did they ever tell us why they stopped the live broadcast on the night of the bail-out? THANK GOD for foreign TV networks who kept going that evening. My interview on Australia’s ABC TV is just one more example of that.

      Official Dublin is quite happy to keep us in the dark, while they condemn our children to servitude at the behest of their overlords in Berlin & Brussels.

      And here’s another example of how official Dublin is eager to keep us in the dark:
      ‘Banker trials would require specialist juries, says DPP’ – Business Post. October.

      http://newsletter.thepost.ie/17fyq9ckdgc

      WHY would that be?!? Surely it would suffice to show any jury the terms of a banking license issued by the Central Bank? The fact that every tax payer in Ireland is now paying for these defunct banks should suffice as evidence. SO, what ecactly are specialists needed for?!?

      Oh yes, let us not forget that the Central Bank threatened in their meeting with me last May that I would be handed over to the DPP. Bring it on sweeties!

  • Frank2521 27/11/11 #
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    Nice one – will it matter? This gang in power are clones of the previous lot so nothing will happen. Thanks for exposing this as most journalists already know these things and don’t print it.

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  • Tony Skillington 27/11/11 #
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    Bring him home…offer him full immunity to act as a ‘whistleblower’…gt him back for 6 months..let him sing his song and then kick him the f**k out of this country forever…..let the International Court Of Justice run the hearing…keep the government well away from the whole process. Let’s see if FG start blustering and shite spinning and we’ll now for sure if they are to be implicated….I know…I know…two hopes of this happening..Bob and f**k all!

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  • William O'Shea 27/11/11 #
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    Perhaps a Sinn Fein government might take a leaf from MOSSAD and drag him back —–

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    • Report this comment

      The problem is that once he is back on Irish soil – would he be actually REALLY pressurised to talk/own up or would he get the light, kid-glove treatment by people who want to be seen to dig out information for the public in PR but not too deep as to rock their own boat too?

  • Martin Jordan 27/11/11 #
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    C**T

    Reply
  • Eileen Gabbett 28/11/11 #
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    Did he get paid to do this interview? If so , how much ?

    Reply

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