‘No red flag’ raised in Financial Regulator's office over Anglo deal court hears
Con Horan is the first witness from the Financial Regulator's office to be called to give evidence at the trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank executives.
Willie McAteer, Pat Whelan and Sean FitzPatrick deny providing unlawful financial assistance to 16 individuals to buy Anglo shares in July 2008.
The jury has already heard evidence that Con Horan the former prudential director in the Financial Regulator's office did not raise a ‘red flag’ or object to the Maple transaction in July 2008.
This was a scheme put in place to dilute the 29% stake in the bank Cavan businessman Sean Quinn had secretly acquired by gambling on Anglo stock using Contracts for Difference.
It involved multimillion euro loans being issued by Anglo to the Quinn family and 10 high net worth customers of the bank to buy Mr Quinn's interest.
Morgan Stanley executive David Churton, who worked on the deal, gave evidence Mr Horan expressed satisfaction there was nothing out of the ordinary about the transaction during a phone call just days before it took place.
However he said there were concerns about Anglo providing finance to the share purchasers and he believes this issue of lending was not raised during the call to Mr Horan.
