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The Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy (also known as the circular transactions controversy) began in Dublin in December 2008 when Seán FitzPatrick, the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank (the state's third-largest bank), admitted he had hidden a total of €87 million in loans from the bank, triggering a series of incidents which led to the eventual nationalisation of Anglo on 21 January 2009. FitzPatrick subsequently resigned his position and was followed within twenty-four hours by the bank's non-executive director, Lar Bradshaw and chief executive, David Drumm. A new chairman of Anglo, Donal O'Connor, was quickly appointed from the board, a move welcomed by the Irish Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan. A number of investigations have been launched into the reasons behind the three resignations. The Central Bank of Ireland is carrying out a review of the bank's dealings, although its Financial Regulator, Patrick Neary, has also since resigned his position. So too have a number of other chairmen, directors and executives involved with Anglo, Irish Life and Permanent and Irish Nationwide. Within days of the initial admission, an announcement was made that Anglo Irish Bank would be one of three (alongside Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland) that would be recapitalised by the Irish government. The recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank was expected to be effected in mid-January 2009, following an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). Lenihan instead unexpectedly announced the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank the night before the EGM due to difficulties he encountered with the recapitalisation process. Recapitalisations of the other two banks mentioned were expected by the end of March 2009 but, according to Taoiseach Brian Cowen, were expected to be finalised in early February 2009 at a total of €7 billion. The nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank on 21 January 2009 followed two more resignations earlier that month. On 7 January 2009, another director, Willie McAteer, resigned, becoming the fourth casualty of the controversy. Two days later the Financial Regulator Patrick Neary retired amidst much criticism over his handling of the affair. After the nationalisation, the Chairman of Irish Nationwide, Dr Michael Walsh, resigned on 17 February, one week to the day that government-appointed directors announced they were investigating a deposit of billions of euro by Irish Life and Permanent, placed in Anglo Irish Bank before the end of its financial year. Taoiseach Brian Cowen denied claims that he was protecting a "Golden Circle" of wealthy financiers from being identified. This mysterious group of ten businessmen is said to have received loans from Anglo Irish Bank in return for buying shares, in a move designed to keep the bank afloat. ==Background== Starting in 1986, Seán "Seanie" FitzPatrick spent eighteen years as chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, during which time the bank grew from a small operator into the third-largest bank in Ireland. When he became the bank's chairman in 2005, handing over the position of chief executive to David Drumm, the bank was recording annual profits of over €500 million. The Anglo share price peaked at €17.60 in May 2007, an increase from under €1 ten years previously. Anglo was valued at nearly €13 billion and FitzPatrick's 4.5 million Anglo shares were worth nearly €80 million at this time. Prior to FitzPatrick's resignation, the Anglo share price had already dropped to €0.32, a drop of 98% with the entire bank valued at a low €242 million and FitzPatrick's stake reduced to €1.5 million. The Financial Regulator first uncovered the €87 million loans in January 2008 when inspectors from the regulator's offices carried out an inspection into the loan book of rival lender, Irish Nationwide Building Society. The inspectors noticed that a large loan was provided to FitzPatrick at Anglo Irish Bank and later repaid. The Regulator discovered at a later date that similar loans were provided to FitzPatrick in September 2008 and repaid by him in October 2008. When the issue was raised with Anglo Irish Bank it was discovered that there were further loans between the two banks over an extended period of eight years. It is uncertain which officials, if any, within the bank knew about the loans. Every Anglo annual report contains a note displaying the total loans given to directors of the bank. This total is measured at a single point in time. In the case of Anglo this occurs on 30 September. FitzPatrick, instead of revealing the true figures of his loans, transferred some of them to Irish Nationwide Building Society, returning them to Anglo at a later date. He acted in a manner that thwarted transparency of Anglo's loan book. Financial authorities are investigating if there have been breaches of corporate governance. The Chief Executive of the Financial Regulator said that "a lay person would expect that issues of this nature and this magnitude would have been picked up" by the external auditors, Ernst & Young.〔(FitzPatrick Anglo loans were more than €87m )〕 After receiving legal advice Ernst & Young declined to appear before a parliamentary committee. This in turn led to inaccurate figures for the total directors' loans given for eight consecutive years in the end of year Anglo accounts. 2008 was the first occasion on which FitzPatrick revealed his true figure, that of €87 million or twice the total of the other twelve directors' loan figures. The situation has been described as Ireland's version of Enron, the American energy company which went bankrupt in 2001, and it has been said that the principals would be immediately arrested if this had occurred in the United States.〔(If FitzPatrick lived in New York, he'd have been arrested )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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