Jury begin third day of deliberations in Anglo trial

Conor Gallagher      

The jury has begun a third day of deliberations in the trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank executives accused of illegally lending money to buy shares in the bank.

The jury resumed its deliberations at 10.45am. It had already been being considering verdicts for over six hours since Friday evening.

Yesterday (Monday) the jury requested transcripts of the evidence of former Anglo Chief Financial Officer Matt Moran and former Head of Compliance Fiachre O’Neill. Both of these prosecution witnesses gave evidence after being granted immunity from prosecution by the DPP.

This morning Judge Martin Nolan ordered that the jurors receive copies of the men’s evidence.

“I wish you luck in reading them,” the judge joked before the lengthy transcripts were handed in.

Former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick and ex-directors William McAteer and Pat Whelan, are charged at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court with breaching Section 60 of the Companies Act 1963 by lending money to investors to buy shares in Anglo.

Mr Whelan (51) of Malahide, Dublin and Mr McAteer (63) of Rathgar, Dublin are accused of 16 counts of providing unlawful financial assistance to 16 individuals in July 2008 to buy shares in the bank. The 16 individuals are six members of the Quinn family and the Maple Ten group of investors.

Mr FitzPatrick (65) of Greystones, Co Wicklow, is charged with ten counts of loaning money to the Maple Ten.

All three have denied the charges. The jury has already been ordered to acquit Mr Whelan and Mr FitzPatrick of a series of related counts.

The Maple Ten deal was designed to unwind the 29.4 per cent control of the bank which businessman Sean Quinn had built up through investment tools known as Contracts for Difference (CFDs).

The ten investors were loaned a total of €450 million by Anglo to buy around 10 per cent of the shares which Mr Quinn controlled. Mr Quinn’s wife and five children were also loaned €169 million to buy nearly 15 per cent of the stock.

For the first time an enlarged jury of 15 was selected to hear the case due to its length. At the conclusion of the trial 12 jurors were randomly selected to consider verdicts while two were thanked and excused. A 15th juror was excused several weeks ago for personal reasons.