Fraud probe former bank chief freed
Anglo Irish Bank
Friday March 19 2010
The former chief of Anglo Irish Bank has been released without charge after being questioned about alleged financial irregularities.
Sean FitzPatrick, former chairman and chief executive of the now nationalised bank, was arrested during a dawn raid at his luxury home in Greystones, Co Wicklow, south of Dublin on Thursday morning.
The 61-year-old was quizzed by fraud squad detectives for around 24 hours before being released from Bray Garda Station.
Detectives - who were granted an extra 12 hours to hold Mr FitzPatrick after an initial 12-hour period elapsed - are now preparing a file on the case for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Financial records were also removed from the ex-banker's house as part of a one-year investigation into the near collapse of the property lender and other Irish banking institutions.
Mr FitzPatrick stepped down in December 2008 when it emerged he had hidden loans worth 87 million euro with Anglo Irish Bank.
The bank's headquarters at St Stephen's Green in central Dublin was raided by the Garda fraud squad and investigators from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement last February, but Mr FitzPatrick is the first person to be arrested.
Earlier this month Anglo Irish Bank began legal action against Mr FitzPatrick to try to recover loans of 70 million euro.
Former finance minister Alan Dukes, incoming head of state-run Anglo Irish Bank, has said the court case would be treated in the same way as any other debt.
Over a period of eight years up to 2007, Mr FitzPatrick temporarily transferred loans with Anglo Irish Bank to another bank before the annual report was audited. It later emerged the loans reached as much as 129 million euro at one point in 2007.
