Former Anglo Irish Bank director Tom Browne told the High Court he was made a scapegoat for the activities of the collapsed bank after âperformingâ loans he had with it began to be called in.
Mr Browne also said that, at the last board meeting he attended before he retired from Anglo in 2007, there were only rumours about the involvement of then-billionaire Seán Quinn in the bank and there was âno detailed discussionâ. The court heard Mr Quinn, who was later declared bankrupt, had an effective 28 per cent holding in the bank.
Mr Browne, who at one time simultaneously held the positions of head of wealth management, head of lending and head of group human resources in Anglo, said the first time he knew of a late 2007 meeting between certain non-executive Anglo directors and Mr Quinn about the businessmanâs stake in the bank his holding was in 2010. That was when he read it in the book by Irish Times journalist Simon Carswell entitled Anglo Republic: I