Reuters: Bankruptcy News: Former Anglo Irish head Fitzpatrick to go on trial next January

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Former Anglo Irish head Fitzpatrick to go on trial next January Jan 23rd 2013, 15:28 Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:28am EST * Fitzpatrick was chief exec during bank's ascendancy * Goes on trial for fraud on Jan. 13 with two ex-colleagues * None of the three have made any plea yet By Sarah O'Connor DUBLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The former head of defunct Anglo Irish Bank will go on trial next year over his alleged role in Ireland's biggest bank failure, the highest-profile trial of a banker linked to the country's financial meltdown. Sean FitzPatrick, the face of Ireland's banking crisis after serving as Anglo chief executive during its stellar rise and chairman during its rapid fall, faces 16 charges of fraud relating to the bank's collapse. He will go on trial on Jan. 13 with fellow former executives Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer, a Circuit Criminal Court judge said on Wednesday. The three have yet to make any plea. State prosecutors allege that Anglo Irish gave loans to a group of investors, referred to by media as the "golden circle", and that those deposits were used to mask large withdrawals. A Dublin High Court last Thursday gave investigators a year to complete the probe which began in 2009. The Anglo Irish collapse, seen as emblematic of casino-style lending that obliterated the local banking sector and pushed Ireland into an 85 billion euro ($114 billion) EU-IMF bailout, is expected to cost the Irish state at least 25 billion euros. The long-running investigation has left Irish voters angry that nobody has been jailed for the mismanagement of banks that helped fuel the runaway "Celtic Tiger" economy. The trial will last at least three months and involve up to 24 million relevant documents, Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan who is representing Pat Whelan said. "It will be considerably more complex than any previous case," Grehan said. All three men face 16 charges each of providing unlawful financial assistance to the wife and children of Ireland's former richest man, Sean Quinn, and other "golden circle" Anglo investors in July 2008. Quinn was released from jail this month after serving a nine week sentence for his failure to cooperate with Anglo's attempts to seize foreign assets he put out of its reach. Quinn, the first major player jailed in connection with the country's economic collapse, lost his 4 billion euro business empire over a disastrous investment in the failed bank. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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