Come Back To Ireland - Cowen's Plea To Drumm

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has called on former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm to return to Ireland from the United States.

Mr Drumm, 44, now lives in Cape Cod, and is being pursued by the bank he used to run for debts of over €8.5 million.

Authorities conducting three separate investigations into dealings at Anglo Irish Bank also wish to question him.

In a surprise move on Thursday last, Mr Drumm filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Massachusetts.

The development comes just weeks ahead of a Commercial Court hearing in Dublin about his case.

Details have been emerging of a settlement offer made to Anglo by Mr Drumm last month which was rejected by the now nationalized bank.

His lawyers told a court in Dublin that the offer included all his assets, except clothing and jewellery.

In the proposal dated September 24th, Mr Drumm offered to sell his waterfront mansion in Chatham, Cape Cod, and his half share in a luxury six-bedroom home in Malahide, north Dublin.

He also offered to hand over his Anglo pension rights, which he claims is worth €5.4 million.

But Anglo rejected the offer claiming it would have left the taxpayer with a shortfall of several million euro.

It disputed Mr Drumm's valuation of his pension and made a counter-offer dated October 8th.

Under Anglo's plan, Mr Drumm would hand over his properties for sale, and agree a loan repayment schedule from his future earnings.

It also demanded he co-operate with a number of investigations into the failed bank.

But Mr Drumm did not reply to the counter-offer, and instead filed for bankruptcy in the US.

A trustee has now been appointed to sell off his assets - a creditors meeting is scheduled to take place in a Boston court in November.

The move may mean that Anglo will not be able to seize his pension assets. It's unclear at this stage if Anglo's High Court case against Mr Drumm will now go ahead on October 26th as scheduled.

It also casts doubt on whether or not Mr Drumm will return to Ireland where authorities wish to question him.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Banking Commission of Inquiry, and the chartered accountants representative body are all looking to speak to Mr Drumm as part of three ongoing investigations.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he wants to see Mr Drumm return to Ireland to co-operate with the inquiries.

"That's what I think everyone would like to see happen," Mr Cowen said, "One would hope that would happen because it's such an important issue and in terms of the public confidence, people would like to see that happen."

Labour Party finance spokesperson Joan Burton said Mr Drumm's bankruptcy proceedings in the US were "adding insult to injury" and said the public was increasingly angry at the failure to call those responsible for the banking crisis to account.

Mr Drumm resigned from Anglo in December 2008, weeks before the bank was nationalized, after it emerged that the bank's chairman Sean Fitzpatrick had hidden loans of €87m from shareholders.

The final cost to Irish taxpayers of bailing out Anglo could be up to €34 billion - and in addition NAMA is in the process of taking over €36 billion worth of impaired property loans from the bank.

Sean Fitzpatrick has already filed for bankruptcy in Ireland - and Mr Drumm's move means that the two most senior bankers in charge of Anglo are now bankrupt.