What they knew and when

Brian Lenihan

Patrick Neary

Willie McAteer

John Hurley

Mary O' Dea

Eugene Sheehy

brian lenihan what he knew and when

Lenihan has always maintained that he knew about the Anglo Irish/ Irish Life & Permanent "circular" transactions only since mid-January, although he concedes his department officials knew about them since October. He says he did not read the section of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report which referred to them. He said his department, upon hearing about them in October, referred the matter to the Financial Regulator. The latest accusation is that not only did his department know about the transactions, but it may have given them retrospective approval during meetings with bankers.

patrick neary what he knew and when

Neary retired a few weeks ago after huge pressure was heaped on him over the Sean FitzPatrick loans scandal. The internal audit report from Anglo suggests Neary not only approved of support schemes to help Irish banks bolster their deposits, but he did not seem concerned about the possible methods. A potentially damaging quotation is ascribed to Neary in the report, congratulating Willie McAteer, an Anglo official on his plans to "manage" the bank's balance sheet. "Fair play to you, Willie," Neary is alleged to have said. Neary retired before the latest controversy about the deposits erupted.

willie mcateer what he knew and when

A former group finance director and chief risk officer of Anglo Irish, McAteer resigned on 19 December after controversy over Sean FitzPatrick's concealment of directors' loans from shareholders. McAteer was a central figure in September as Anglo's deposits were dwindling and its funding position turning grim. McAteer and the then chief executive, David Drumm, held several meetings with the Financial Regulator on this subject and McAteer claims in the report that Patrick Neary supported moves to bolster its
deposits coming up to year end.

john hurley what he knew and when

The governor of the Central Bank, who is also a member of the European Central Bank, has so far escaped controversy over the Anglo/IL&P deposits saga. Anglo Irish representatives claim there is evidence that the regulatory authorities knew there would be support of Anglo Irish Bank at its year end. However, there are believed to be no taped conversations with Hurley himself to support this, and they rely instead on emails which do not refer to Hurley.

mary o'dea what she knew and when

O'Dea took over from Patrick Neary as acting head of the regulator a few weeks ago, after spending the last few years working in the consumer side of the office. According to the internal audit report from Anglo, she rounded on executives from IL&P at a January meeting, asking them to explain why they engaged in such transactions. Executives from IL&P are quoted as saying they found her "aggressive". They later took up their concerns with the Department of Finance where, the report claims, they were treated differently, with senior officials not expressing any upset over the transactions.

eugene sheehy what he knew and when

The chief executive of AIB has not surfaced so far in the dispute over the Anglo/IL&P deposits. But according to the internal report, AIB was viewed as being closer to the government than Anglo, which seemed to resent this relationship. The report also suggests that AIB's investment subsidiary, AIBIM, pulled money out of Anglo last year at a crucial point for the smaller lender. The report also suggests AIB in late January this year also provided funding to Anglo, although the bank has so far denied it gave any deposits to Anglo as part of a "green jersey" scheme to short up Irish banks.

February 22, 2009