Anglo Irish Bank case continues to hear legal argument

The trial of four senior bankers accused of trying the manipulate Anglo Irish Bank’s balance sheets using billions in inter-bank loans will continue hearing legal argument until Friday.

Four men, including Anglo's former head of finance, Willie McAteer (65) and John Bowe (52), who had been Anglo's head of capital markets are accused of conspiring to mislead investors by using interbank loans to make Anglo appear €7.2 billion more valuable than it was.

The interbank loans allegedly involved money being transferred by Anglo to Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) and then being put back on deposit with Anglo via ILP's life assurance division.

The transfer would allegedly appear as corporate deposits and not an interbank loan so the bank’s corporate funding figure would appear bigger for the bank’s year-end figures on 30 September, 2008.

Peter Fitzpatrick (63), former director of finance at Irish Life and Permanent (ILP); ILP's former CEO Denis Casey (56) from Raheny, Dublin; Mr McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary, Co Tipperary and Mr Bowe, from Glasnevin Dublin have all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors through financial transactions between March 1st and September 30th, 2008.

The trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court is continuing in legal argument until Friday before Judge Martin Nolan. The jury is due to return on Friday.