The former head of Anglo Irish Bank was due to return to a Boston federal courthouse later yesterday where he was expected to acquiesce to a US effort to ship him back to his native Ireland to face criminal charges related to the bank’s collapse.
US officials arrested David Drumm, 49, at his home in the wealthy Boston suburb of Wellesley on October 10 after Irish officials asked that he be extradited to face a 33-count criminal indictment related to the collapse of the bank, which was nationalised in early 2009 in a takeover worth some €30bn ($33.8bn).
He has been held in federal custody since his arrest and has denied any wrongdoing.
US court records do not indicate what lawyers plan to address at his hearing, but Ireland’s weekly Sunday Business post quoted Drumm as saying in an interview that he was prepared to drop the extradition fight.
“I have instructed my US attorneys last week to explore all opportunities with the US and Irish authorities to expedite a return to Ireland,” the newspaper quoted Drumm as saying. “I have given clear instructions that all rights to challenge the extradition in the US should be waived and no other options available to me should be pursued in order to facilitate an immediate return to Ireland.” A lawyer for Drumm declined to comment on the Irish newspaper report.
The hearing had initially been scheduled for on Monday but was delayed due to a snowstorm.
Drumm faces charges in Ireland including forgery, conspiracy and false accounting for fraudulent loans the bank made in 2008 intended to help prop up its share price, which was plummeting during the global financial crisis.
An Irish court in July sentenced three lower-ranking executives of the bank to serve 18 to 36 months in prison, making them the first bankers jailed since the country’s financial crash.
Drumm: In custody.
