Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick has told the High Court he had a €22 million pension fund from Anglo Irish Bank when he retired as chief executive in 2005.
He and his wife Catriona took €5 million of that out in cash and used it to help fund investments, he said.
The court is deciding whether Ms FitzPatrick has a €6 million beneficial interest in 18 assets despite her husband having being declared a bankrupt in 2010. He has since exited bankruptcy.
Mr FitzPatrick, whom the court was told was cleared in a criminal trial of failing to disclose loans he had with the now collapsed Anglo, began giving evidence on Friday in support of his wife's case against Chris Lehane, the official assignee (OA) in bankruptcy, in which she claims the €6 million interest.
Mr Lehane has a separate related case against Ms FitzPatrick and the couple’s three adult children David, Jonathan and Sara.
The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which took over Anglo, has brought separate related proceedings against Ms FitzPatrick, in which it denies she is entitled to claim monies loaned to fund asset investments or that the loans were given on the basis there would be no liability to her.
Mr FitzPatrick was chief executive of Anglo until his official retirement in 2005. He remained on as non-executive chairman until 2009.
Asked by Jacqueline O’Brien SC, for Ms FitzPatrick, to summarise what his assets were just before he retired as the bank’s chief executive, he said there were the shares, the family home in Greystones, Co Wicklow, and a number of investments. “I am afraid to say a figure because it could be way out but we were very, very comfortable”.
Between 2003 and 2009, he and his wife signed a number of loan facility letters whereby their loans eventually grew to some €120 million, he said. Each facility letter superseded the previous facility letters.
Some of the later letters provided a number of items, including property and other investments, as additional security for the renewed loan facilities, he said. By 2007 there were 29 items of additional security, none which were part of the disputed 18 assets before the court, he said.
He believed the rough value of those additional securities was some €40 million, which he said was an understated valuation.
The case resumes on Tuesday.
