INQUIRIES INTO matters relating to Anglo Irish Bank being conducted by corporate enforcer Paul Appleby will be finished in “months rather than years”, Mr Appleby said yesterday.
He said he was confident his office would be in a position to prepare a file for submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by then.
Mr Appleby was speaking at the publication of the annual report for 2009 of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
The report states the Anglo inquiry is the most complex conducted to date by the office, and involves a number of matters including:
The provision by Anglo in 2008 of financial assistance for the purchase of its shares;
Matters associated with the loans made by Anglo to its directors over a number of years, and
Matters relating to the declared level of customer deposits at Anglo in 2008.
The ODCE is working in close co-operation with the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in relation to these matters, according to the report. One third of the ODCE staff, including gardaí assigned to the office, are working on the case.
“A lot of progress has been made, and the investigations are going well,” Mr Appleby said.
“Last year, the High Court correctly described our evaluation of several million documents associated with this investigation as ‘a daunting task’.
“The DPP has recently spoken of the complexity of ‘white-collar crime’ and the difficulties of pursuing these types of cases. These statements have introduced an informed note of realism to the immense challenge which this office and the Garda are facing in these investigations.”
Mr Appleby said the economic downturn had led to a rise in the workload of his office, given that more companies were going into liquidation, and more liquidators’ reports were being filed.
During 2009 there was a 47 per cent increase, to 1,519 from 1,036, in the number of new reports and complaints received. Most of the increase was attributable to the growth in newly insolvent companies and a consequent surge in initial reports from liquidators.
He said it was the view of the office that the relatively sudden change in the economic climate had not resulted in any notable deterioration in the standard of directors’ behaviour.
In over 80 per cent of their reports, liquidators had been able to satisfy his staff that the relevant directors had acted honestly and responsibly in conducting their companies’ affairs. This was broadly comparable to the experience of earlier years.
There was a 20 per cent increase, to 185, in the number of reported cases of excessive directors’ transactions involving company funds. This offence accounted for almost 80 per cent of the auditor reports received.
The associated monetary amounts were €162 million in 2009, up from the 2008 figure of €134 million. The policy is to seek to have the directors return the funds, and during the year €94 million was returned as a result.
One case involved an unidentified company and the transfer of €70 million in loans to other companies controlled by the same directors. Following representations, the matter was rectified by the recipient companies becoming part of a group of companies that included the donor company. Transfers between group companies are allowed.
Complaints Resolved Case Studies/examples
COMPLAINTS WERE received about the management company of a development in Dublin comprising a mix of private and social/affordable housing.
The complainants said there had never been an agm, that they wished to put themselves forward for election to the board of directors, and that the company’s directors appeared uninterested in responding to their concerns.
Initially, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) corresponded with the directors of the management company, without success. In the absence of progress, Paul Appleby elected to direct the convening of an agm.
The meeting was held, and some of the members who offered themselves for election were successful in being appointed to the board. It took over six months to resolve what was a relatively simple issue, according to Mr Appleby’s report.
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Jason Davis, a director of Jason Davis Security Management Services Ltd, was disqualified for eight years from acting as a director.
The Appleby report said the court heard evidence of the diversion of €67,500 in company funds for use as deposits on two apartments in Spain and the transfer of debtor assets valued at €280,000 and employees to two different “phoenix” companies, to obtain new security licences. The Revenue Commissioners, who were owed about €1 million in taxes, had petitioned for the winding-up of the company.
