THE TRIAL to decide whether former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm should be allowed to walk away from bankruptcy in the US with a fresh financial start will take place over four days in January 2013.
A Boston judge has set a trial start-date of January 22nd next year, which falls one week after the fourth anniversary of the nationalisation of the bank and more than two years after Mr Drumm filed for bankruptcy.
Judge Frank Bailey has set out a schedule of deadlines to be met in the action taken by Anglo, now known as Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, and the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, against the former banker.
The court has allowed each side to take up to 10 depositions – statements taken under oath – with up to seven hours for each deposition.
Mr Drumm has already been subjected to depositions during the bankruptcy hearing but could face further questioning in the case.
IBRC and the trustee, lawyer Kathleen Dwyer, have issued legal challenges against Mr Drumm to prevent him being discharged as a bankrupt, in which case he could walk away from any remaining debts with a clean financial record after the liquidation of his assets.
They claim he fraudulently failed to disclose property and money transfers to his wife.
The bank is also objecting to his discharge from bankruptcy, claiming he committed numerous frauds on the bank during his time as chief executive from 2005 to 2008, and that he lied repeatedly during his bankruptcy proceedings in Boston.
Mr Drumm has denied the allegations, claiming the bank is acting in bad faith by prosecuting a case which it has acknowledged makes no commercial sense.
The bank declined to comment on the legal fees incurred in the proceedings which have been running for more than a year.
The legal actions taken by IBRC and Ms Dwyer last autumn have been combined and will be heard as one case against Mr Drumm.
In a schedule of pre-trial deadlines set last week, the judge said the bank and trustee may not seek more than 25 interrogatories – requests for information – between them from Mr Drumm without the court’s consent.
Depositions must be completed by June 22nd, though expert witnesses can be deposed until September 21st. Disclosures by expert witnesses must be submitted by July 20th and responses from other experts by August 20th.
The court has also ordered both sides to hold a “settlement conference” by November 23rd, 2012 to decide whether the case can be settled before the trial.
Mr Drumm filed for bankruptcy in Boston, where he now lives, in October 2010 after failing to reach a settlement with Anglo over unpaid borrowings of €8.5 million, most of which related to loans to buy shares in the bank.
He resigned as chief executive of Anglo in 2008 over chairman Seán FitzPatrick’s hidden loans.
Mr Drumm’s home in Cape Cod has been sold for $4 million (€3 million) and the trustee is also seeking to sell his family home in the Boston suburb of Wellesley.
His former home in Malahide, Dublin, went on the market last month for €1.65 million.
