Former Anglo executives received $1.2m loan from bank, trial hears
The former chief operations officer and the former chairman at Anglo Irish Bank received a US$1.2m loan from the bank to complete a share deal in 1997 a trial has heard.
The former fraud officer with Anglo told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that former COO Tiarnan O'Mahoney received the loan jointly with former chairman Sean FitzPatrick.
Mr O'Mahoney is one of three former bank officials on trial accused of attempting to hide bank accounts from the Revenue in an alleged tax evasion scheme.
Day 10 of the trial also heard that details such as names and addresses were changed on several accounts allegedly connected to Mr FitzPatrick or Mr O'Mahoney on the bank's internal computer system.
These changes happened after the accounts had been closed.
Mr O'Mahoney (aged 54) of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow and his colleagues former company secretary Bernard Daly (aged 65) of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin, and Aoife Maguire (aged 60) of Rothe Abbey, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin have pleaded not guilty to seven alleged offences committed in 2003 and 2004.
The three are accused of trying to delete references to two accounts in the name of John Peter O'Toole, Mr FitzPatrick's brother-in-law, from Anglo's Core Banking System (CBS).
Mr Daly and Mr O'Mahoney also deny omitting the name of Mr O'Toole from a list provided to the Revenue Commissioners of people who held non-resident accounts worth more than €100,000 in 1995.
Mr O'Mahoney and Ms Maguire further deny attempting to delete six other accounts, connected to Mr FitzPatrick, from the CBS.
Today former Anglo fraud officer Patrick Peake told prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn SC that he found records showing Mr O'Mahoney and Mr FitzPatrick jointly borrowed $1.2m from the bank through the companies Lock Ltd/Susie Ltd and Carnahalla Ltd.
The money was a bridging loan before the companies received finance from the private bank Guinness and Mahon. The loan was to fund the purchase of 75,000 shares at US$16 each in a company called Spiros.
Mr Peake said this loan was for a period of up to two months before the private bank stepped in with the finance.
In a separate section of evidence Mr Peake told the jury that several accounts held by Anglo had their details changed on the computer system long after they had been closed.
An account called Lock Ltd/Susie Ltd was closed in December 2001. Two years later the address on the account was changed from no address to Douglas Street, Isle of Man.
Another account called Carnahalla Ltd had an address “Care Of AIB”.
This name was later changed to Carna Halla. In 2004 it was again changed to Carna with no address listed. In 2008 it was changed to Carna Ltd with an address of Patrick's Street, Cork.
A further account was listed as Triumvirate Properties Ltd with an address of George's Courte, Isle of Man.
Mr Peake said he believed this was the address of Anglo Irish Bank's Isle of Man branch or one of its subsidiaries.
In April 2004, some months after the account was closed, its address was changed to 16 St Stephen's Green, Dublin. Mr Peake explained that this is adjacent to Anglo's headquarters which occupies 18-21 St Stephen's Green.
Mr Peake pointed out several transactions between the Triumvirate account and an account belonging to Mr FitzPatrick. He said there were two lodgements by the former chairman in 1999 for IR£3,500 and IR£4,770.
Mr FitzPatrick's name appeared on an account statement from 2003 but was not on a statement later given to gardaí.
The witness agreed that at some point between 2003 and 2012 his name had been removed from the record.
The trial continues with Mr Peake's evidence before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of six men and six women.
