Drumm trial to begin today

The trial of David Drumm, the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, will begin today with the disgraced banker first up to give testimony at a Boston bankruptcy court.

The 47-year-old Dubliner filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts in October 2010 and is set to face questioning about a number of alleged instances of fraud.

The IBRC — formerly Anglo — and Kathleen Dwyer, the bankruptcy trustee who is a court-appointed officer liquidating Mr Drumm’s estate, are both challenging his attempt to discharge himself from bankruptcy in the US due to money transfers made to his wife.

IBRC and Ms Dwyer claim they will bring evidence that will prove he intended to and did “hinder, delay, or defraud his creditors” when he “transferred, removed, or concealed property of the estate” after he filed for bankruptcy.

If they are successful, Judge Frank J Bailey could force Mr Drumm to hand over a share of his income for the rest of his career or until such time as the total debts owed of €10.5m to his creditors are paid back, a figure which included €8.5m owed to IBRC.

Ms Dwyer and IBRC filed a document with the judge on Monday featuring a number of cash transfers made to his wife Lorraine which they described as a list of alleged “acts of fraud, misrepresentations, concealments, transfers, or other predicate acts”.

It also claims Mr Drumm swore he had repaid his wife for loans drawn down. They say those loans are “fictitious”.

Filings made on behalf of the bank and the trustee state that Mr Drumm “undertook a series of deliberate acts to move as much of his assets as he could into his wife’s name and to then conceal those efforts”.

They claim Mr Drumm has “played fast and loose with the bankruptcy process, his dealings with IBRC and the trustee, his disclosure obligations, and, most notably, the truth”.

It has been noted that Mrs Drumm never held a bank account in her own name since marrying the former banker in 1991.

Mr Drumm has recently been doing some consultancy work in New Jersey for a scaffolding company.

The trial is expected to run for five days, over what is a public holiday weekend in the US and therefore is set to conclude next Wednesday.

However, the judge doesn’t expect to make a quick decision and it could be later in the summer before any verdict is reached.