Court to be updated on probe into Anglo’s fall

The High Court will be updated today on what progress has been made in the probe by the Director of Corporate Enforcement into the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.

The hearing before Mr Justice Peter Kelly comes less than 24 hours after two former Anglo officials — Willie McAteer, former finance director, and Pat Whelan, former managing director of lending — appeared before Dublin District Court yesterday on charges arising from the collapse.

The judge, who observed last January the three-and-a-half year long investigation appeared to be taking “a very, very long time” but agreed to extend it yesterday, was told on that occasion the DPP may decide “within weeks” whether to refer charges in relation to some completed aspects of the investigation.

The ODCE is probing five issues and Mr Justice Kelly was told in January that 150 files had at that point been sent to the DPP, the investigation into two issues was complete and the rest were “substantially complete”.

The judge remarked the investigation, while hugely complex and dealing with a wide variety of criminal offences never considered before here, still seemed to be taking “a very, very long time”.

He also said he was “taken aback” to hear just 11 gardaí were seconded to the ODCE probe to work with eight officials into the “largest and most serious” investigation in the State’s history.

While that number of gardaí seemed extraordinary in the context of the investigation, he noted the ODCE believed it was enough to ensure the probe proceeded at “reasonable” speed.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation is conducting a parallel investigation into Anglo and late last year sent a file to the DPP on back- to-back deposits which Anglo undertook with Irish Life and& Permanent in Sept 2008.

The ODCE investigation is examining two issues — the provision of a loan to an Anglo executive director in late 2008 and the bank’s failure to maintain a register of transactions with its directors and persons connected with those directors.

Large files have been sent to the DPP on those matters which do not relate to current officials of Anglo, renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

The probe into the remaining three issues, including loans by Anglo in mid-2008 to certain parties to buy its shares, was “substantially complete”, the court heard.

A file was sent to the DPP last January on a fourth issue relating to transactions by Anglo directors and the suspected provision by Anglo officers of false or misleading information to the bank’s auditors. Further investigation on that was necessary due to the unexpected length of the probe’s engagement with “reluctant” witnesses.

Completion of the probe into the fifth — whether alleged false or misleading information in some Anglo financial and interim management reports breached the EU Transparency Directive — awaited finalisation of probes into the other four issues.