Former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank arrested

The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank has been arrested by fraud squad officers investigating financial irregularities.

Sean Fitzpatrick is expected to appear before the Criminal Courts this morning.

It is the third time he has been arrested in connection with the investigation.

It is understood the 64-year-old was arrested at Dublin Airport this morning by gardai attached to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

Fitzpatrick is the third person to be arrested so far this week in connection with an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities at the collapsed bank.

Former senior executives Willie McAteer and Pat Whelan were charged yesterday with a string of fraud offences over a failed insider trading scam.

They both face up to five years in jail for each of the 16 charges of advising and lending millions to a golden circle of investors to falsely inflate Anglo's share prices.

Bankrupt billionaire Sean Quinn's wife and children were among those involved in the ill-fated plot to save the sinking bank in July 2008.

Anglo was nationalised months later, in January 2009, and has since cost the Irish taxpayer about 30 billion euro (£23.4 billion) - almost half the value of the country's bank bailout.

Former finance director McAteer, 61, from Rathgar in south Dublin, was arrested yesterday morning on the N7 at Rathcoole on the outskirts of the city.

His alleged co-conspirator and former managing director of lending at the toxic bank, Whelan, 50, was detained at his home in Malahide, north Dublin.

PA