Living in the US: David Drumm

FRAUD SQUAD detectives plan to send an extensive file on alleged financial irregularities at Anglo Irish Bank to the Director of Public Pros­ecutions (DPP) by mid-December.

The garda investigation, in collaboration with the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, has entered its final phase and detectives say it is planned that the file will be sent within 10 weeks. A source said gardaí were "acutely aware" that the public was anxious to see the courts deal with individuals who played a major role in sparking the banking crisis.

Just one crucial banker still has to be interviewed, former Anglo chief executive David Drumm, who is living in the US. Detectives have been liaising with his legal team and hope to speak to him voluntarily when he returns to Dublin for civil proceedings in the courts. Two Anglo executives have been arrested by the fraud squad: former chairman and chief executive Sean FitzPatrick and finance director William McAteer. Gardaí have interviewed three former senior figures in Irish Life and Permanent (IL&P) about transactions between that bank and Anglo. It is now vital to the garda investigation that Drumm be interviewed. Detectives say it is necessary to speak to the three IL&P executives to ascertain what they knew about the deposits that altered the bank's financial status in the run-up to the collapse.

Gardaí have given a detailed briefing to the DPP on the progress of the investigation on several occasions. It is understood detectives want the DPP to charge FitzPatrick with criminal offences. The three actions that may give rise to a criminal charge are the concealment of loans for eight years, the Anglo 10 investment scheme and the so-called "circular" transactions totalling €7bn. FitzPatrick was arrested under the 2001 Criminal Justice Act, which governs fraud and theft offences. Potentially, FitzPatrick could also be charged with additional theft and fraud offences. Other charges could include making gain or causing loss by deception, acting dishonestly with the intention of making a personal gain and false accounting.

Gardaí have taken over 300 statements and have sifted through almost 100,000 emails since the fraud squad began its investigation into the bank in February last year.

Denis Casey, who resigned last year as chief executive of IL&P, handed in a sworn statement about the controversy to gardaí at Harcourt Square.