Saturday, October 17, 2015

Sunday Globe Special: Drumming Up an Extradition to Ireland

Related: Beating an Irish Drumm

I'll bet they would like to:

"Irish banker at center of scandal arrested in Mass." by Evan Allen Globe Staff  October 10, 2015

Federal agents arrested former Irish banking executive David Drumm, who is at the center of an Irish banking scandal, on an extradition warrant Saturday, according to the US Marshals Service and the US Attorney’s Office.

Drumm was arrested in Massachusetts and will appear in federal court in Boston on Tuesday, said Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Kevin Neal and Christina Dilorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in Boston.

They declined to specifiy where Drumm was arrested or what charges he faces.

Drumm was once one of Ireland’s most powerful and wealthy bankers. He was the chief executive of the Anglo Irish Bank in September 2008, when its finances unraveled in the global financial meltdown. He left his post that year, following disclosures that the bank’s chairman, Sean FitzPatrick, had received $115 million in hidden loans from the bank.

He fled to the Boston area in 2009, as he was facing inquiries from Irish authorities and intense public scrutiny. Initially, he lived in a $5 million estate in Cape Cod and later moved to a $2 million house in Wellesley.

Drumm’s attorneys could not be reached for comment.

Drumm filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts in 2010, when he was millions of dollars in debt. During the case, Drumm’s former bank accused him of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets from the bank and other creditors; it alleged that he had secretly transferred his financial interest in the Cape Cod and Wellesley homes to his wife, along with the proceeds of the sales of additional property in Ireland, and luxury vehicles.

But US Bankruptcy Judge Frank Bailey denied him a discharge in a scathing ruling that declared him to be “not remotely credible,” and called his conduct “knowing and fraudulent,” according to The Irish Times. Drumm appealed the ruling in federal court early this year, according to court documents.

According to Irish media, Drumm has consistently refused to cooperate with an inquiry into the country’s banking crisis, which caused widespread foreclosures and financial pain. According to reports in Irish media in July, he refused to return to Ireland to provide an in-person statement to the inquiry, instead offering to make a videotaped statement.

He did provide a lengthy written statement, according to a report in The Irish Times.

“In the correspondence, it is understood he apologizes to every person in Ireland personally and financially affected by the banking crisis and to the staff who committed to the bank for their job losses and personal and financial hardship,” according to the Times.

That should cover it all, yeah.

Drumm has been under investigation as part of a criminal probe into the collapse of Anglo, according to a report Saturday in The Irish Times. Other reports said there have been previous efforts to have Drumm extradited.

He's sorry!

Irish law enforcement officials could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.

--more--"

Gee, usually bankers make good citizens.

Related:

"Anglo Irish Bank Corp.’s former chief executive, David Drumm, faces an extradition hearing on Tuesday in Boston after being arrested in the United States. Drumm was being held on an extradition warrant, according to Nikki Cedric-Barrett, a spokeswoman for the US Marshals Service. Anglo Irish was nationalized in January 2009 as its loan losses soared following a real-estate crash. Irish police and corporate enforcers launched an investigation into the bank a month later. Drumm moved to the United States the same year and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010. An Irish parliamentary inquiry into the nation’s banking crisis decided in July against publishing a statement from Drumm on advice from the director of public prosecutions. Drumm was CEO from 2005 to 2008. The lender subsequently required a $33.3 billion bailout, was renamed Irish Bank Resolution Corp., and was put into liquidation in 2013. The Irish state-owned broadcaster RTE reported in January that officials in Dublin had begun the process of seeking to extradite Drumm to face criminal charges. A US judge ruled on Jan. 7 that Drumm could not escape debts of more than $11 million under his bankruptcy petition."

In case you missed it.

Irish banker to appear in federal court Tuesday

He's going to fight! Can't you hear the war Drumming?

"Former Irish banker David Drumm to fight extradition; Criminal charges await him in Ireland" by Beth Healy Globe Staff  October 13, 2015

Irish banker David K. Drumm, who has been living in Wellesley and evading Irish authorities for six years, will spend at least a few more days in jail, awaiting a bail hearing set for Friday.

The former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank appeared Tuesday in federal court in Boston to face extradition proceedings to Ireland. At home, he has been charged with 33 criminal offenses related to the failure of the bank he ran from 2005 through 2008.

Drumm, 48, was led into court in handcuffs and ankle chains, wearing a blue oxford shirt and dark jeans Tuesday afternoon. He left his country amid the global banking crisis, first taking residence at a $4.6 million estate on Cape Cod and then moving to a $2 million home in Wellesley, where he was arrested Saturday at the request of Irish authorities.

His lawyer, Tracy Miner, said she plans to ask that Drumm be released on bail. She also complained about Drumm being picked up on a holiday weekend.

“I think it was unfair that he had to sit in a cell in the Wellesley Police Department that did not even have a bed, for three days,’’ Miner said in an e-mail. Drumm is expected to be moved to another facility, she said.

Awwww, the poor bankster! He's lucky he's not being put to death.

At a later court date, in November, Miner plans to argue against his extradition, she said. She will do so despite an agreement between the Irish and US state departments to return the head of the failed bank to his home country to face criminal charges.

A prosecutor for the US attorney’s office, Amy Burkart, said she would argue on behalf of the Irish government against bail for Drumm, saying he is a flight risk.

Meanwhile, new details about the Irish government’s case against Drumm became public in the US attorney’s extradition complaint.

In January 2009, Irish financial regulators filed a complaint with the Irish national police, alleging “a number of suspected malpractices” within Anglo Irish, according to the US complaint. The official charges include falsifying documents, conspiracy to defraud, and illegally directing the bank to make loans to an investor betting on the company’s stock.

In particular, the complaint alleged that Drumm helped enable a vast and devastating bet on the bank’s stock by Sean Quinn, once the richest man in Ireland. Quinn in 2005 allegedly began to build a 28 percent stake in the bank by purchasing derivatives called “contracts for difference.”

As the banking crisis exploded and the bank’s share price plunged, Quinn requested hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from Anglo Irish to prop up his position. Drumm allegedly facilitated the loans to Quinn and his family and failed to disclose the information about Quinn’s investment in financial reports.

Other Anglo Irish executives have denied similar charges.

While the banking crisis has largely faded from headlines in the United States, in Ireland, coverage of Anglo Irish, Drumm, and his colleagues is major news. Members of the Irish press flocked to federal court in Boston this week to cover the potential extradition of a man who came to symbolize the excesses of the banking system.

Irish banking regulators took over Anglo Irish in January 2009, the month after Drumm fled to Boston, in a bailout that cost taxpayers there more than $40 billion and hurt Ireland’s economy.

Do you remember how much it cost here, American?



Wait, that's a French thing.

There have been 33 warrants for Drumm’s arrest outstanding since last year, issued by a judge of the District Court in the Dublin Metropolitan District.

Drumm filed for federal bankruptcy protection in Boston in 2010, but Judge Frank Bailey denied him a discharge, calling him not credible. Drumm is appealing the decision.

--more--"

Also see:

"Ten people from two Irish Gypsy families, half of them children, died Saturday when their mobile homes caught fire before dawn. Detectives said it was too early to determine a cause for Ireland’s deadliest fire in 34 years. The death toll highlighted the often crowded, ramshackle living conditions for the homegrown Gypsy minority in Ireland."

They would have been better off in a banker's jail.

UPDATE: Report on IRA boosts coalition