David Drumm's Return

Drumms' luxury US mansion to be sold as wife Lorraine to move back to Ireland

Drumm's luxury US mansion to be sold as wife moves back to Ireland

The wife of David Drumm is to sell their luxury US home and move back to Ireland to support her husband as he faces trial.

Lorraine Drumm is putting the €1.75m mansion on the market and plans to be back in Ireland by the summer, a court has heard.

The home, located in the upmarket Boston suburb of Wellesley, is the only property held by the couple which hasn't been sold off.

A detective sergeant said yesterday that the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive, who is still involved in bankruptcy proceedings in the US, has debts of €8.5m.

Mr Drumm's solicitor, Michael Staines, disclosed the plans for the sale and Lorraine Drumm's return in court yesterday.

"My client's wife will be coming back to Ireland at the end of June, when the youngest daughter is finished school," he said.

"My instruction is that she is putting the house up for sale and will be coming back."

The move marks a significant change of plan for the couple, who had said during extradition proceedings that they saw their future as being in the US.

They had said that they planned to continue their lives there, having put down firm roots there.

The couple previously owned a €2m mansion in the exclusive Abington development in Malahide, Co Dublin. They also had a shore-side holiday home in Chatham, a village in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The property was once valued at $4.6m (€4.1m).

But these had to be sold as part of Mr Drumm's bankruptcy, with the proceeds split between the bankruptcy estate and Lorraine Drumm.

Mrs Drumm was not present in court yesterday, but her husband had a large group of supporters sitting in the front row of the public gallery. They included members of his family and that of his wife.

During breaks in proceedings, he was seen blowing kisses in their direction, waving and smiling. The court heard he had not seen his elderly mother Mary in seven years.

His case was called 10th on the list of a busy courtroom number three at the Courts of Criminal Justice. Much of the remaining court business was diverted to other courts in the complex after it became clear that the hearing would take up most of the day due to submissions on bail.

However, the body of the court remained quite full for the duration of the hearing. A large number of gardaí were present, as were officials from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).

The court heard of considerable correspondence between lawyers for Mr Drumm and senior gardaí and ODCE officials in 2009 and 2010 regarding a meeting to discuss the investigation.

However, ultimately Mr Drumm did not agree to attend such a meeting.

Mr Staines said the contact ended around the time that his client filed for bankruptcy.

He said Mr Drumm had been involved in civil litigation with his former employer over debts that he owed. An agreement was reached with Anglo, said Mr Staines.

However, the Finance Minister decided that he couldn't stand over that agreement and as a result Mr Drumm decided to apply for bankruptcy, the solicitor said.

The allegation was not challenged by any representative of the State in court yesterday.

However, previous claims, made during the extradition proceedings, that Mr Drumm's arrest had been timed to coincide with the General Election were rejected by a garda witness.