The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said this morning the Garda investigation into practices at Anglo Irish Bank is coming to a conclusion.
He said the Director of Public Prosecutions was taking a “very keen interest” in the matter.
The Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said yesterday the files would be before the DPP before the end of the year and that “key decisions” would be made within a short time frame.
The DPP has assigned a number of barristers to advise the Garda investigation team on compiling the criminal files arising from their lengthy and complex investigations.
There are three separate investigations taking place into activities at Anglo Irish Bank. As well as the Garda investigation, the bank is being investigated by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and former comptroller and auditor general John Purcell, who was appointed by the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (Carb) to examine the role played by chartered accountants.
The complaints committee of Carb appointed Mr Purcell in February 2009 to investigate issues relating to directors’ loans and other matters at Anglo. Mr Purcell is investigating possible breaches of the institute’s bylaws and rules of professional conduct. He is examining the role of Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick, chief executive David Drumm, Mr McAteer and ILP finance director Peter Fitzpatrick.
He is also looking at the role of accountancy firm Ernst and Young, who were Anglo’s auditors.
A Carb spokesman said Mr Purcell would submit a report on the four accountants before the end of the year and on Ernst and Young in the new year.
The Director of Corporate Enforcement’s two-year investigation into Anglo Irish Bank is expected to be “substantially complete” by the end of this year. Four primary events are being investigated for the purpose of establishing if they breached provisions of the Companies Acts and/or common law.
Speaking on RTE radio this morning, Mr Lenihan also said he had instructed Irish Nationwide to examine their legal weaponry in an effort to get a €1 million bonus paid to former boss Michael Fingleton returned.