Drumm wanted ‘Mercedes’ reference to car removed from filing

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm asked a lawyer helping him compile his bankruptcy statement to remove a reference in a draft to "Mercedes Benz" as the make of a car he owned, a US bankruptcy court heard.

Testifying on the fifth day of Mr Drumm's bankruptcy trial in Boston, Heather Zelevinsky, who worked as a lawyer at a Massachusetts firm that advised him on his bankruptcy filings in October 2010, was asked about an email that he sent her shortly before he submitted financial statements in court.

Referring to two automobiles listed in a draft statement of his financial affairs that he was preparing to file in court, Mr Drumm asked Ms Zelevinsky to remove a reference to “MB” - described in court as his reference to “Mercedes Benz” - from the description of the vehicles.

“Automobiles - I’m still not happy!” wrote Mr Drumm in his email in late October 2010. “Can you remove the ‘MB’ reference as they have been surrendered and just leave it as ‘Sedan’ and ‘SUV’: if the trustee doesn’t care she won’t ask and the media can go fish.”

The automobiles were subsequently described in the final schedules and the statement of financial affairs that Mr Drumm filed in court on October 29th, 2010 as “2010 Sedan” and “2011 SUV” valued respectively at $47,000 (€34,300) and $64,000 (€46,700) in his bankruptcy filing.

Ken Leonetti, attorney for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, put it to Ms Zelevinsky that this was an example of her receiving a request from Mr Drumm to remove information from his proposed sworn bankruptcy statements and her answering that request. "Yes," she replied.

Mr Leonetti referred to another example where Mr Drumm outlined in an email to Ms Zelevinsky that a second payment for school tuition fees and charitable donations should be removed from his draft bankruptcy statement.

Mr Drumm told her, according to the email, that his US company made the second payment for school fees. This reduced the school tuition fees listed in his final bankruptcy filing from $66,900 to $34,200.

Mr Leonetti also referred to another line in Mr Drumm’s draft bankruptcy statement in which he crossed out a gift of $2,500 and said in handwriting: “Delete - paid by LLC,” referring to the fact that his US company had made this gift.

In his final bankruptcy statement there were no references to any gifts being made by Mr Drumm.

Asked if she recalled discussing with Mr Drumm about drawing capital from his business to make payments, Ms Zelevinsky said: “I think we may have discussed it but I don’t remember specifically.”

IBRC and Mr Drumm's bankruptcy trustee have taken this legal action in the Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court to deny the former banker a discharge from bankruptcy and a fresh financial start.

They claim that he failed to disclose transfers of $1.2 million in cash as well as interests in property to his wife Lorraine, and that he made false oaths in his sworn bankruptcy statements in relation to those transfers.

Mr Drumm, who owes the bank €10.5 million, claims that he did not know he had to include cash transfers to his wife in his October 2010 bankruptcy filings until a meeting with his creditors in April 2011. He filed amended bankruptcy statements the following month.

Asked by Mr Leonetti if Mr Drumm was “pretty far out on the spectrum in terms of his financial sophistication,” Ms Zelevinsky said he was “more sophisticated than the average Chapter 7 debtor,” referring to the section of the US bankruptcy code that Mr Drumm filed under.

Ms Zelevinsky, the fourth witness to testify in the trial, said that Mr Drumm was “prompt” and “very quick to process things” in preparing financial statements for the bankruptcy court.

Asked if Mr Drumm did more work preparing for his bankruptcy than other debtors, Ms Zelevinsky told the court: “He was very likely to put in more hours but as far as getting hold of one’s own finances that is what Chapter 7 debtors are supposed to do.”

She agreed with Mr Leonetti that when it came to filling financial schedules and statements that it was “not too difficult” for Mr Drumm.

The court heard that Mr Drumm was keen to file his financial statements in court as quickly as possible in October 2010.

Mr Leonetti read out an email to the court, in which Mr Drumm told Ms Zelevinsky on October 26th, three days before he filed his bankruptcy statements. “I think it would be good to file as early as possible - let the media get it out of their system this week while things are relatively calm and the fizz has gone out of the bankruptcy a bit,” Mr Drumm told Ms Zelevinsky in the email.

Asked if she ever told Mr Drumm not to report cash transfer to his wife, Ms Zelevinsky said: “I don’t remember if it came up.”

Mr Leonetti referred to earlier testimony Ms Zelevinsky gave in a deposition in which she said that she did not tell Mr Drumm to exclude cash transfers in his original bankruptcy statements before he filed them in October 2010.

She testified in the deposition that she didn’t think that she had advised Mr Drumm not to report any cash transfers in the statements.

The trial continues. Lorraine Drumm, who arrived at court with her husband shortly after 8am, is scheduled to testify later today.