Jury's still out in trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank executives

Conor Gallagher      

The jury in the trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank executives has entered its fourth day of deliberations.

The jurors had already been considering verdicts for over 11 hours when Judge Martin Nolan told them to resume deliberations at 10.30am this morning (Wednesday).

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.

 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.