David Drumm: from Anglo to bankruptcy to arrest

January 2005

David Drumm becomes chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, succeeding Sean FitzPatrick who becomes chairman of the lender.

September 2008

As the banking crisis deepens Mr Drumm starts transferring hundreds of thousands of euro and US dollars of money to his wife Lorraine into accounts either solely controlled by her or held jointly by the couple. Mr Drumm later describes the second half of the month as “just Armageddon” in banking. “The world was falling apart,” he said.

September 30th, 2008

The Government introduces an industry-wide banking guarantee to stem a run at Anglo which was losing up to €1 billion a day over the course of the month.

December 12th, 2008

As Anglo’s share price continues to slide, the bank tells the Government that it cannot survive and needs cash.

December 18th, 2008

Sean FitzPatrick resigns as chairman of the bank.

December 19th, 2008

Mr Drumm resigns as chief executive of the bank.

January 14th, 2009

Anglo is nationalised by the Government.

June 2009

Mr Drumm moves to the US with his wife and two daughters. They eventually settle in Wellesley, a wealthy suburb of Boston, in a house they buy for $2 million with a deposit of $831,000.

October 2010

After failing to reach a settlement with the new management team installed by the Government at Anglo over his debts of €8.5 million, Mr Drumm voluntarily files for bankruptcy in Boston.

October 29th, 2010

Mr Drumm files a financial statement in the Massachusetts bankruptcy court showing total debts of $14.3 million (€10.2 million) and assets of $13.9 million, which includes $3.6 million in unpaid salary from Anglo and other money he claims to be owed by the bank.

May 17th, 2011

After intense questioning at a series of five creditors’ meetings over several months, Mr Drumm files amended financial statements in the bankruptcy court. They show transactions including the sale of a $2 million property in Cape Cod and 14 other transactions totalling $765,000 to his wife that he did not disclose in his original statements.

August 31st, 2011

The new management at Anglo file a legal action known as an adversary proceeding saying that Mr Drumm should not be entitled to a discharge from bankruptcy that would free him from his debts, claiming that he had concealed asset transfers and defrauded creditors.

April 17th, 2014

Two of Mr Drumm’s former colleagues at Anglo, Willie McAteer, the bank’s former finance director, and Pat Whelan, the bank’s former head of Irish lending, are convicted of a company law offence by providing unlawful financial assistance to 10 businessmen, all customers of Anglo, to buy shares in the bank. The purchases were part of a scheme designed to prop Anglo’s share price during the financial crisis. During the 47-day trial, Judge Martin Nolan describes Mr Drumm as “the instigator and author of the scheme,” while a defence lawyer describes the trial, at which Mr Drumm did not appear, as “Hamlet without the prince.” The case marks the first trial involving former colleagues of Mr Drumm’s at Anglo who are charged with criminal offences.

May 21st, 2014

A trial to decide whether Mr Drumm should be discharged from his debts begins. He and his wife testify during six days of evidence.

January 6th, 2015

Bankruptcy Judge Frank Bailey denies Mr Drumm a discharge from bankruptcy in a scathing judgment, saying that the former banker was “not remotely credible and his conduct both knowing and fraudulent.” Mr Drumm’s statements to the court were “replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect and outright lies,” said the judge. Upholding 30 objections against a discharge, he said that Mr Drumm carefully transferred more than €1 million in assets to his wife to keep money from his former bank and made misrepresentations at every stage of the proceedings. The ruling leaves Mr Drumm facing financial ruin as creditors can now to pursue him directly to recover their debts.

January 7th, 2015

It is reported that the State has begun the process of seeking to extradite Mr Drumm from the US to face criminal charges in Ireland. In an extradition file sent via diplomatic channels to the US Department of Justice the Director of Public Prosecutions directs that Mr Drumm be charged with up to 30 offences following investigations by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

January 16th, 2015

Mr Drumm appeals the bankruptcy ruling to the US District Court in Massachusetts.

February 19th, 2015

Mr Drumm hires attorney Tracy Miner of Massachusetts firm Demeo, one of Boston’s top white-collar criminal defence lawyers to fight his bankruptcy appeal and any extradition proceedings he faces.

April 15th, 2015

In his appeal brief seeking to over Judge Bailey’s damning bankruptcy ruling, Mr Drumm blames his bankruptcy lawyers for his failure to disclose the transfers to his wife in his court statements.

May 15th, 2015

The former Anglo Irish Bank, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, rejects Mr Drumm’s grounds for appeal saying that it “would be hard to imagine a more dishonest debtor.”

May 29th, 2015

Mr Drumm rejects IBRC’s challenge to his bankruptcy appeal, accusing the bank of personally attacking him and saying that the bankruptcy court was “influenced unduly by its intense dislike” of him.

July 2015

The former Anglo chief executive submits a witness statement to the Oireachtas banking inquiry after being called to attend.

July 23rd, 2015

Mr Drumm tells the inquiry that he will not be attending the committee’s scheduled hearing on July 29th as directed. He offers to give evidence by video link but some members of the committee object given that his extradition from the US is being sought by the State.

July 28th, 2015

The banking inquiry formally rejects Mr Drumm’s offer to testify by video link. This follows concerns expressed by the DPP. The inquiry accepts Mr Drumm’s statement to the committee.

July 29th, 2015

The inquiry decides not to publish Mr Drumm’s statement after an intervention by the DPP, though it is covered in certain media with a number of websites publishing the statement in full.

October 7th, 2015

The inquiry formally agrees not to publish Mr Drumm’s written statement or correspondence following a request from the DPP.

October 10th, 2015

Mr Drumm is arrested by US Marshals in Massachusetts on an extradition warrant. He will remain in custody until his hearing in the US District Court in Boston on Tuesday.