[cross posted to thestory.ie]
The Independent leads tomorrow with a story about €100m in outstanding loans on which former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick is apparently not paying interest. That’s an interest bill of €400,000 a month, but no repayments are being made.
This actually partly relates to my story the other day about Anglo-Irish Nominees Ltd.
We know Mr FitzPatrick had personal loans from Anglo. But those loans did not include lending like the Atrium deal set out here. Money was lent to a company in which he appears to have had a beneficial interest. I wonder how much of Anglo’s lending related to Mr FitzPatrick’s personal interest in investments? This is on top of the personal loans we are already aware of.
The shareholders in Tysan, John Kerry Keane, Paul Coulson, Denis O’Brien, Lindat Limited, Lar Bradshaw, Sean Fitzpatrick, Gary McGann, Paddy Wright, Sean Melly, Pat Gunne, Longstone Estates Limited and Lochlann Quinn, don’t seem to have invested anything in the company apart from €3k share capital.
The liabilities of the company are pretty much all bank loans. The charge indicates there is no personal recourse to the borrowers. Anglo funded €70m of the purchase in 2005 and the 2006 accounts for Balcuik show an “ultimate shareholders loan” of €30m (probably lent by Anglo). The property was then revalued to €137m, handy that, and Anglo increased the borrowings and repaid the €30m to the shareholders. So there is no equity. Anglo get arrangement fees of around €2m and as much interest as possible and probably all of the risk.
And how many more of Anglo’s staff have loans, directly or indirectly, with Anglo?
And how many of these loans are going to be written off at taxpayer expense?
And of course the other question is this:
When Brian Lenihan met Sean FitzPatrick on September 18, 2008, the same day the first PwC report was requested, was Mr Lenihan, or the Regulator or Central Bank, already aware or made aware, of the extent of Mr FitzPatrick’s loans, direct or indirect?
It seems to me that when the results of that first PwC report on Anglo were given to the Government on September 27, just two days before the night of the bank guarantee, the Government, or its regulatory agencies, or Mr Lenihan himself, must have been aware of the extent of Mr FitzPatrick’s loans. The loans were too big for them not to be aware.
And were that the case, Anglo, including all of its deposits and liabilities, was guaranteed despite that knowledge.
Why?
Comments
One response to “Sean FitzPatrick's loans”
Irish Times, Thursday Oct 1st:
“Gardai were expected last night, to enter Anglo Irish Bank’s headquarters and examine electronic data as part of the continuing investigation into possible company law breaches at the bank.”
This “expectation” the article continues, “follows the application yesterday in the district court by the office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ouch! What a lovely title) for a search warrant in connection with the investigation”
The ODCE and the Gardai fraud bureau( three policeman and an accountant?) launched a “high profile raid” at Anglo in February,removing a “considerable amount of material” (sounds good ..so far)
Mary Coughlan last week told the Dail that “the enquiry was huge”
“Anglo Irish has been in state ownership since January” the article concludes.
So why do the ODCE need all these fancy warrants?
So what”material” did the much vaunted Gardai fraud bureau remove last February?
Clearly it did not involve any of the electronic data which is the core of the information library of any financial institution in the 21st Centuary.?
So “Seanie” Fitzpatrick’s remaining cronies in Anglo Irish have had 8 full months to manipulate the electronic files and wipe as much incriminating evidence as possible?
You could not make this level of incompetence up.!