David Drumm is a ‘clear flight risk’, says US prosecutor

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm is a "clear flight risk" and if released on bail could flee to a country that has no extradition treaty with Ireland, a US government attorney has argued.

Setting out objections to Mr Drumm's release on bail while he fights extradition from the US to Ireland, US attorney Amy Burkart said in a court filing submitted on Thursday night that the former banker's conduct in his US bankruptcy case shows "he cannot be trusted."

The lawyer told the court that releasing Mr Drumm on bail would have "negative implications for US foreign policy in cases where the United States seeks extradition of fugitives from Ireland".

She referred to a US bankruptcy judge’s ruling this year that Mr Drumm’s statements to the court were “replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect and outright lies.”

"This is a significant finding with respect to the bail decision," she said in the filing submitted last night, hours before Mr Drumm will ask Massachusetts Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell to be released on bail.

The Dubliner (49) is due before the judge at 10am (3pm Irish time) on Friday to make his case that he should be released from custody.

His lawyers have denied that he is a flight risk and said that he and his family have "long and deep" ties in the Boston area where they have lived for more than a decade and that he has no intention of leaving.

The US attorney challenged this, saying that the Drumms are Irish citizens, have family in Ireland and he and his wife have lived there longer than in the US. Despite these ties, they have twice before moved their family elsewhere - to the US, she said.

“While Drumm goes to lengths to portray the move in 2009 as a homecoming to the United States, the competing vision of that move is that the Drumms essentially fled Ireland under difficult circumstances to start a new life in the United States,” she said.

Mr Drumm is wanted back in Ireland to face 33 charges relating to events dating back to the banking crisis in 2007 and 2008 and for engaging in “fraudulent and deceptive acts to conceal the true financial condition of Anglo Irish Bank when he was its chief executive”.

The US government attorney dismissed the former banker’s assertion that he was willing to cooperate with the banking inquiry in Ireland, saying that this was not at issue in this case.

Ms Burkart said that he had repeatedly denied requests to be interviewed by the Irish authorities, either in Ireland or the US, regarding the criminal investigation into Anglo Irish Bank.

“Given his unwillingness to provide meaningful cooperation to Irish law enforcement to go voluntarily to Ireland, there is a clear risk that, if released, he may go elsewhere, perhaps to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with Ireland,” she said in her court filing.

She pointed to the bankruptcy court’s ruling about his ability and willingness to conceal and shelter assets as another reason why the court should not release him on bail pending his extradition case.

“The fact that Drumm has managed to maintain a wealthy lifestyle since he arrived in the United States in 2009, when he was over $11 million (€10.2 million) in debt, attests to his ingenuity regarding marshalling resources to meet his purposes,” said Ms Burkart.

His offer of the family home to secure his release on bail is “not a meaningful offer” given the fact that he was unsuccessful in his attempts to discharge debts of $11 million in bankruptcy.

Mr Drumm has been held in custody since his arrest at his home in Wellesley near Boston on Saturday, October 10th.

His lawyers have sought his release, arguing that it could take several years for him to prepare a defence given the complexity of the charges and the passage of so much time since the events of 2008.