Gerard Gannon, who described himself as being "involved in housing development and investments", was a client of Anglo Irish Bank since 1992 and was responsible for devel- oping the Malahide Marina.
When Brendan Grehan SC, for Pat Whelan, put it to Mr Gannon that in 2008 he would have been one of the biggest developers in the country, he replied: "Probably." Would he have had a net worth of "maybe a billion?" "Probably, yeah."
Mr Gannon told the court that in July 2008, he received a phone call from Mr Whelan, who told him "an opportunity" had come up. He agreed to meet David Drumm, then Anglo's chief executive, at the bank's head office in Dublin two or three days later.
After five or six minutes of "chit-chat", he was told that "an opportunity had arisen" to buy Anglo shares. Asked by Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, whether it was explained to him why this opportunity had arisen, Mr Gannon said: "No." He was told that Anglo would supply the funding for the share purchase. No third parties were mentioned to him, but he was told that Morgan Stanley would be "the middle men".
Mr Gannon said he thought the figure mentioned was “€45-€60 million” and that the recourse would be set at 25 per cent. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes. “I agreed there and then,” he said.
