Former Anglo and ILP bankers deny conspiracy charge as trial continues

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The trial of Peter Fitzpatrick, John Bowe, Willie McAteer and Denis Casey was continuing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court before Judge Martin Nolan and a jury. All four had pleaded not guilty.

They faced a charge of conspiring with each other and others to mislead investors through financial transactions between 1 March and 30 September 2008. The former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) bankers allegedly organised circular transactions involving €7.2 billion to strengthen the appearance of Anglo’s 2008 balance sheet.

The proceedings were reported on 6 April 2016. Giving evidence on day 43, Colin Golden, Anglo’s head of group finance in 2008, described attending an audit committee meeting on 18 November 2008.

Colin Golden said he read a Group Finance briefing about the ILP transactions and told the committee they increased customer deposits. According to his evidence, committee member and non-executive director Donal O’Connor asked whether this was “window dressing”. Willie McAteer, then Anglo’s head of finance, responded with the phrase “balance sheet management”.

Colin Golden told prosecuting counsel he regarded the arrangement as a cash-for-cash exchange without collateral. He said he learned in February 2009 that the sequence of deposits and loans had been incorrectly described to auditors the previous October. He recognised the sequence’s significance after reading a newspaper report on 5 April 2016, but did not believe it affected the accounting treatment.

He said Anglo’s preliminary annual results, published on 3 December 2008, recorded the transactions separately. He agreed that offsetting the deposits against the loans would have reduced both the customer accounts figure and the loans and advances to banks figure by €7.2 billion.

Colin Golden knew of no discussion before publication about including a note explaining the connection between the transactions. He could not explain its absence and said his accounting decisions depended on information from colleagues.