Three former bank executives have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years to three and a half years for a €7.2bn conspiracy to defraud in September 2008.
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The transactions were accounted for on Anglo’s end of year balance sheet as customer deposits rather than an inter-bank loan.
All four men were charged with conspiring to mislead investors by setting up a €7.2 billion circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30 2008, to bolster Anglo’s balance sheet.
Former Irish Life and Permanent Chief Executive Denis Casey was sentenced to two years and nine months. McAteer received 3 ½ years, Bowe two years.
But the judge said two blue chip publicly quoted companies had conspired together to manipulate the accounts of Anglo Irish Bank.
He said they were “sham transactions”.
The lack of convictions until now related to the crash has angered Irish taxpayers, who had to stump up 64 billion euros – nearly 40 percent of annual economic output – after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone.
He said he believed the starting point for the sentence was eight years.
On the background to the case, Judge Nolan recalled 2008 was “a chaotic year in the financial world”, that there was “dysfunction” in financial markets and that people in the industry were under stress. “All three men acted in what they thought would be in the interests of their companies”, he said.
The judge said he had taken into account submissions on behalf of the defendants that they had made no direct profit or reward from their crimes.
Judge Nolan said Mr Casey authorised Irish Life & Permanent’s involvement in the scheme.
The judge acknowledged that the three men had lost their jobs and had been subjected to “public odium and ridicule”, while their lengthy trial had been “a very stressful experience”.
It was decided in Anglo that it needed to hit a certain “corporate number” for banking deposits. “If we can’t rely on the probity of these banks we lose all hope or trust in institutions”, Nolan said. People were entitled to rely on the honesty and integrity of the top firms but honesty and integrity were lacking in these transactions.
Sentencing Mr Bowe to two years, the judge said he did not have the same seniority as Mr McAteer, but was the de facto treasurer of the bank and had liaised with Mr Drumm and Mr McAteer.
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Unlike Bowe and Casey, McAteer has a previous conviction for providing unlawful financial assistance to the so-called “Maple Ten” to buy shares in Anglo in 2008.
