Seán FitzPatrick expelled and fined by accountant association

Former Anglo Irish chief Seán FitzPatrick has been excluded as a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) and fined €25,000 by its disciplinary arm.

Chartered Accountants said that Mr FitzPatrick had accepted the findings following an investigation by its committee led by John Purcell, the former comptroller and auditor general.

The investigation involved “the concealment” of multi-million loans when Mr FitzPatrick led the bank.

“The fact that Mr FitzPatrick was chief executive or chairman of the bank over the period of concealment adds to the gravity of this misconduct,” it said.

In light of the above, Mr FitzPatrick accepted that the appropriate sanction to meet the gravity of his conduct was exclusion from membership of the institute and he consented to this.

“Mr FitzPatrick has further undertaken not to make any future application for reinstatement,” it said.

Chartered Accountants opened its investigation as long ago as 2009.

The following year, it decided Mr FitzPatrick had a disciplinary case to answer but its tribunal was delayed until last year at the request of the DPP until all the legal cases involving Anglo and other bankers were completed.

Mr FitzPatrick was acquitted on all charges against him in 2017.

Earlier this year, Chartered Accountants in a disciplinary tribunal awarded costs of €15,000 against former Anglo chief David Drumm.

It has outstanding investigations against two other former bankers and Anglo’s former auditor Ernst & Young, or EY.