Sean Fitzpatrick -the former Chairman of Anglo Irish bank has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged financial irregularites at Anglo Irish Bank.
Gardaí from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation carried out a search of a private residence this morning and arrested Sean Fitzpatrick who has been taken to Bray Garda Station.
Sean FitzPatrick stepped down in December 2008 after admitting he had concealed millions of euros in personal loans from the bank. He hid the loans from shareholders by temporarily transferring them to another bank before each year-end to avoid revealing them in the accounts.
Anglo Irish was nationalised by the Irish government in 2009 after it threatened to collapse in the face of a property crash.
Last week Mr FitzPatrick told the bank he could not repay 70m euros he owes in unpaid loans.
Gardai were called into investigate possible fraud at Irish financial insitutions over a year ago . Many people will be asking – why did the arrest take so long?
What happened at Anglo Irish that was suspicious?
There was a transfer of nearly 7.5 billion euro from Irish Life and Permanent to Anglo Irish Bank which was paid back fairly quickly.
There were also loans of 451 million euro from Anglo to ten “golden circle” customers, to buy shares in Anglo Irish – which had the effect of propping up the banks market value.
Also under investigation will be some loans of 80 million euro to Sean Fitzpatrick by Anglo Irish Bank.