Sin Bin: Pair of former Anglo Irish bosses jailed for fraud
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Two former executives of the Anglo Irish Bank have been jailed in Dublin after being convicted of fraud after misleading depositors, lenders and investors by making the bank’s corporate deposits look larger than they were.
John Bowe and Willie McAteer were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
McAteer has been sentenced to three and a half years while Bowe gets two years.
Co-conspirator, Denis Casey, ex-chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, was also given two years and nine months.
The fraud involved so-called circular transactions which were designed to disguise the true state of the bank’s financial health.
In 2008, Anglo loaned 7.2bn euros (£6bn) to, ILP, which then placed the same sum back with Anglo.
The transactions were accounted for on Anglo’s end of year balance sheet as customer deposits rather than an inter-bank loan.
Deposits are a key factor in assessing the market’s and consumer confidence in a bank.
The prosecution said the accounting had been a “dishonest scheme” designed to mislead the people who would be looking at the bank’s published accounts.
Anglo Irish Bank had to be rescued by the Irish government in 2009.
The bailout cost Irish taxpayers about 30bn euros (£23bn).
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