The brother of David Drumm, the former Anglo Irish Bank CEO awaiting extradition from the US to Ireland for trial, has argued that Drumm should not be accused of having fled Ireland because Boston is his real home.
Speaking with "The Pat Kenny Show" on Newstalk FM yesterday, Ken Drumm said, “The suggestion that David fled Ireland makes absolute no sense, and it's nonsense.
“He went home to continue his life in the US. He could see what was going on in Ireland, but he certainly did not flee Ireland.”
“Boston is home for [him] – Ireland is where [he's] from, but Boston is home,” he added.
David Drumm, 49, faces 33 criminal charges from his time as the head of Anglo Irish Bank, including counts of false reporting, giving unlawful financial assistance, forgery, being privy to the falsification of documents, conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.
After resigning from his post in 2008, in the lead-up to Ireland’s banking crisis, Drumm moved with his family to Massachusetts in 2010 and filed for bankruptcy there. He was arrested and held for extradition to Ireland by US Marshals in October 2015 and is currently in jail in Massachusetts.
The former banker has expressed serious doubt that he will receive a fair trial in Ireland, arguing that others were equally to blame and that he is being used as a scapegoat.
He has offered to end the extradition battle and return to Ireland willingly if can await trial in Ireland on bail, offering to wear an electronic tag, check in with police daily, and give up his passport. Thus far Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions has twice refused to grant him a bail hearing.
Ken Drumm told Pat Kenny that his brother “wants nothing more than to come back to Ireland, face the charges, get bail, deal with his defense, meet with his lawyers and defend himself in what is going to be a long and very tiresome saga."
He said that Drumm “has been dealing with this for eight years, and there's no sign of it abating… David just wants to deal with this and get it out of his life.”
When asked if he thought David’s claims of being scapegoated were valid, Ken replied, “David has got the blame for most of this, but even the Banking Inquiry report spreads the blame far and wide.
"Anybody that [David has] ever met in his lifetime has come away not only impressed with him but having a great deal of respect for him but actually expressing love for the man. David is a very good person.”
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