‘I didn’t run then, I am not running now’ – David Drumm

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm yesterday made a personal and emotional plea to a US judge to be released on bail pending his extradition case, insisting that he hadn't fled from Ireland.

Speaking in a Boston court, Mr Drumm told magistrate judge Donald Cabell he rejected the notion that he ran away from Ireland to the US after the collapse of the bank in 2008.

“I did not flee Ireland and I reject the notion that I fled Ireland; I was free to come and go,” said Mr Drumm, standing feet away from his wife and daughters, who became tearful during his remarks.

The Dubliner (49) is seeking his release while fighting extradition. He is sought in Ireland to face 33 charges relating to transactions while he was chief executive of the bank that sought to flatter its financial health as it edged towards collapse during the banking crisis.

Family

He told the judge it was “instinctive” for him and his family to return to

Massachusetts

in 2009 because they “had our heart here for the longest time” after spending “maybe the happiest time in our lives” when he had set up Anglo’s US business in the 1990s.

The one-time chief executive, whose former bank has cost the Irish public €29 billion, told the judge that “the last six years have been very difficult for me, as you can imagine”.

“I really do strongly reject the notion that somehow we ran away from Ireland,” he said, appearing in ankle shackles, a grey sweater, green tracksuit pants and white trainers.

Speaking about being apart from family in Ireland, Mr Drumm said it was “a big sacrifice to be an emigrant”.

“Through the wonders of Skype” he could talk to family in Ireland but “it’s not the same”, he added.

He knew the extradition request would be coming. Political figures were “screaming from the rafters” to get him home, he said. When reports about his extradition appeared in January, he offered to surrender himself to the US attorney in Boston.

“I didn’t run then, I am not running now. I have no intention of going anywhere,” he said in a speech of about seven minutes.

Arguing that he was not a flight risk, Mr Drumm said that leaving his family was “just anathema to me”.

“Were I to flee, I would be abandoning my wife of 24 years, I would be abandoning my children, derailing their education,” he said, choking up slightly. “The damage to me personally would be something that I could not take.”

‘Flight risk’

Assistant US attorney

Amy Burkart

said Mr Drumm was a “flight risk” and was arguing that “the regular rules don’t apply to him”.

Mr Drumm had “significant assets and the means to flee”, she said, noting that the Drumms had bought a $2 million (€1.9 million) house in a wealthy suburb of Boston and sent their two daughters to one of the country’s most expensive schools where tuition fees cost more than $44,000 a year.

She noted that Boston was just “three hours south of the Canadian border” and there were “options for people who have means”.

A judge’s ruling in January that Mr Drumm had lied in his US bankruptcy case showed that “he cannot be trusted” and that “potential perjury charges” have to be “part of his calculus” on whether to flee.

After a hearing of about 85 minutes, the judge reserved his decision on granting bail, saying: “I have a lot to digest.”

He asked both sides to consider a bail hearing in February.