John Bowe, Willie McAteer and Denis Casey jailed for fraud

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

Judge Martin Nolan jailed John Bowe for two years, Willie McAteer for three and a half years and Denis Casey for two years and nine months following their convictions for conspiracy to defraud. The proceedings were reported on 29 July 2016.

They had all pleaded not guilty. The charge concerned conspiring together and with others to defraud through a €7.2 billion circular transaction scheme between 1 March and 30 September 2008, intended to bolster Anglo Irish Bank’s balance sheet and mislead investors.

The jury convicted Casey on day 89 of the trial, having returned guilty verdicts against Bowe and McAteer a week earlier.

Bowe’s shorter term reflected his lesser role and the fact that he did not sit on the board, Judge Nolan said. The judge added that obeying instructions offered no legal defence.

Judge Nolan said the men manufactured €7.2 billion in deposits through sham transactions in September 2008 to make Anglo’s books appear healthier. He said none of the men gained from the scheme and there was no loss to the State or banks because the interbank loans cancelled each other out. He nevertheless said the conspiracy potentially affected thousands of people.

Casey told gardaí he agreed to the short-term loans only on condition that his company faced no risk, and that he neither knew nor intended that Anglo would misrepresent them as customer deposits.

McAteer had previously been convicted in 2014 of providing unlawful Anglo loans to ten property developers in July 2008, breaching Section 60 of the Companies Act. He completed 240 hours of community service in lieu of a two-year prison sentence. The court also heard that he lost tens of millions of euro when his Anglo shares collapsed in value.