Jury begin fifth day of deliberations in trial against two former Anglo executives
Conor Gallagher
The jury has begun a fifth day of deliberations in the trial of two former Anglo Irish Bank executives after yesterday acquitting former chairman Sean FitzPatrick.
The jury resumed considering verdicts on the remaining 32 charges against his co-accused at 10.32 am this morning. It has been being considering verdicts for nearly 14 hours since Friday evening. It is week eleven of the trial.
Former Anglo Director of Finance William McAteer and Head of Irish Lending 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 (52) 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, was charged with 16 counts of loaning money to the Maple Ten and the Quinns. The jury found him not guilty at ten counts yesterday. Judge Nolan ordered not (NOT) guilty verdicts on the other six counts last week due to lack of evidence
All three have denied the charges. The jury were also ordered to acquit Mr Whelan 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.