The Briefcase: Anglo boss's 'outright lies', Welfare Wednesday and oil like water

EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie asks its readers to put their feet up and take a look back at all the goings-on from the world of business.

So once again it’s time to delve deep inside The Briefcase for all the important – and sometimes less-important – financial news that has come out this working week:

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Need to know

The “absent prince” could be returning to his princedom

Massachusetts judge Frank Bailey didn’t miss when he took aim at David Drumm in his ruling on the former Anglo Irish Bank boss’s US bankruptcy bid this week.

“Drumm’s statements to this court were replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect, and outright lies,” Judge Bailey said in his scathing ruling.

The 48-year-old banker filed for voluntary bankruptcy to potentially walk away from €10.5 million in debts – the vast majority of which was owed to the in-liquidation Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland! Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland! / Photocall Ireland!

But the judge’s decision not to grant him bankruptcy in the US, where he would have got a smoother ride than under the equivalent Irish laws, opens up the door for him to be pursued for the full sum.

The man dubbed the “absent prince” during the high-profile trials for other Anglo officials was accused of defrauding his creditors through a string of clandestine transfers to his wife Lorraine as the bank he led collapsed in a smouldering ruin.

Judge Bailey rejected Drumm’s “so stupid” defence, adding in his withering 122-page judgement that the banker appeared to be “casting about for any plausible answer but the truth”.

The decision was followed with reports, yet to be officially confirmed, that the Justice Minister had pressed the “go button” on plans to extradite Drumm on up to 30 charges.

Meanwhile, the IBRC was keeping tight-lipped on how much former directors from Anglo and Irish Nationwide – the two firms nationalised and rolled into the now-liquidated entity - owed it in total.

By the end of 2009 there was €166 million outstanding in loans to former directors and managers, but there has been scant information out since then.

At least Drumm’s deeds inspired this charming Dublin mural:

Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Nice to know

• Grafton Street’s iconic Bewley’s café will close for an estimated 6 months which means 140 staff will be shown the door. The owners have claimed the business was running at a loss because of the combined effects of high rents and the lingering effects of the recession. That was enough for trade union Siptu to call for an end to upward-only rent reviews to protect jobs
• Oil prices were at their lowest level in nearly 6 years thanks to a global glut of production. That means cheaper prices at the pump, although not enough for Independent TD Mattie McGrath – who wants the government to cut excise duty to help slash costs further. The knock-on effects of cheap oil are widespread, with low energy costs also pushing the eurozone into deflation territory

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• Liz Delaney’s pub at Coolock in Dublin launched a short-lived “Welfare Wednesday” promotion. The Department of Social Protection quickly demanded its logo be pulled off the pub’s flyers and the following day the venue said it would cut the word “welfare” from advertising - and extend its cheap-drinks offer to all punters

Now you know

• It was a bumper year for startups, with figures from Vision-Net confirming more new companies were formed in 2014 than in any year since the Celtic Tiger days of 2007
• Tesco announced it planned to take a razor to its costs, cutting 30% from operating expenses to lure back spooked investors. The news came as its Irish arm confirmed 350 night staff were taking redundancy as it put more workers on day shifts
• The government’s 2014 exchequer returns showed it took in more than expected on every type of tax last year except for local property tax. The annual cost of servicing the nation’s debts also rose to €7.5 billion

Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

• The average asking price for houses across Ireland dipped slightly in the last 3 months of 2014 to €193,000, still significantly higher than a year earlier
• Ryanair’s share price hit a new high as the budget airline reported record passenger numbers. That was enough to value boss Michael O’Leary’s piece of the carrier at over €500 million
• North Korean hackers made a schoolboy error when they launched a cyber attack on Sony, the FBI said. The agency said it knew who was behind the hack because some of the hackers had forgotten to conceal their IP addresses

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One for the road

The BT Young Science and Technology Exhibition opened its doors to the public on Thursday and we took the chance to visit the RDS and chat with some of the young entrants.

From probing the benefits of a gluten-free diet to perceptions of feminism, the students weren’t afraid to tackle the big issues.

Take Hannah Allsopp, who raked over 170 years of crime statistics to work out if the media was spinning the truth on murders – or if things had actually got worse.

Maybe we should give her a job.

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