Ex-Anglo bankers to face fraud trial over €8m loan

Two former bankers with the defunct Anglo Irish Bank are to stand trial foralleged fraud over an €8m loan arranged for one of them.

Pat Whelan, aged 54, and Willie McAteer, aged 63, appeared before Dublin District Court yesterday where they were remanded on bail after being charged under the Companies Act.

The former Anglo directors were remanded on bail by Judge John O’Neill and are due to appear before the court again on November 3, the Courts Service said.

The ex-bankers are both charged with arranging a loan for Mr McAteer worth €8,246,307 which was secured against shares he held in the liquidised lender.

The charge states that the money was arranged to pay off a loan he owed to Bank of Ireland which he was personally liable for.

The money was allegedly arranged in a borrowing from Anglo on September 29, 2008.

It also states that the loan provided a gain to Mr McAteer and a loss to Anglo contrary to section 297 of the Companies Act 1963, as substituted by section 137 of the Companies Act 1990.

Both men were directors of Anglo when it went bust.

Mr McAteer, of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, was a former head of finance and risk with Anglo, while Mr Whelan, Coast Road, Malahide, Dublin, was a former head of lending.

Officers from the Garda fraud squad arrested the men in Dublin city this morning as part of ongoing investigations into financial irregularities at the lender.

Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised and rebranded the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation following a crippling bailout which cost the State €30bn. It was liquidised last year.