Anglo 3 were paid €1m last year
Former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick, who was arrested and questioned recently, was paid €131,000 in fees last year – for just three months’ work. He resigned from the bank in December 2008 and owes it €88.7m.
Former chief executive David Drumm, who was photographed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, recently, was paid €654,000 for three months’ work in 2008. This was broken down between €400,000 salary, €15,000 in benefits and a €239,000 pension contribution. Mr Drumm owes the bank €8.3m.
Former finance director and chief risk officer William McAteer, who was also arrested last month, was paid €240,000 last year for four months’ work. This consisted of €175,000 in salary, €19,000 in benefits and €46,000 for his pension. He resigned in January 2009 and owes the bank €8.5m.
Another Anglo director, Lar Bradshaw, who owes the bank more than €28m, was paid €31,000 in fees.
The figures were revealed in Anglo’s annual report, which detailed losses of €12.7 billion, the worst ever posted for an Irish company. The bank said there is a chance €102m of the near €130m owed by the four directors may not be paid back. Anglo, which was nationalised last year, may need €18.3bn in new capital, according to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.
Added to €4bn pumped in last year, that would take its bailout cost to €22.3bn. The Anglo results came as Taoiseach Brian Cowen was accused of “economic treason” by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore for propping up the bank at taxpayers’ expense. Mr Gilmore questioned in the Dáil why Anglo was ever included in the Government’s September 2008 bank guarantee scheme.
“I believe the decision was made to save the skins of a number of individuals, some of whom were connected to FF and whose property interests and prosperity were bound up with the fortunes of Anglo,” he said. But Mr Cowen angrily denied the charge, his voice appearing to quiver with emotion as he did so.
“I will not be accused, frankly, of seeking to cause treason to my country. I find that beyond the pale,” he said.
FF backbenchers applauded Mr Cowen, who also came through a potentially difficult meeting of his parliamentary party unscathed after TDs failed to back John McGuinness’s call for him to step aside on performance grounds.
Mr Cowen last night issued a statement reiterating that the Anglo decision had been taken to maintain financial stability. He said the decision had been based on advice from the Central Bank, Financial Regulator, Department of Finance and the NTMA.
That advice, in turn, was based on “extensive analysis and monitoring” by these bodies over the previous weeks. “The documentation supporting that analysis that is held by those institutions will be made available to those conducting the relevant inquiry into the ‘banking crisis’ should they deem it relevant,” he added.
