Former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank David Drumm has rejected IBRC's challenge to his US bankruptcy appeal, accusing the bank's lawyers of personally attacking him and accusing the Bankruptcy Court of being "influenced unduly by its intense dislike" of him.
In legal documents filed this evening, Mr Drumm said that justice was there to serve "the unlikeable as well as the likeable".
David Drumm is appealing the decision of a US bankruptcy court to refuse him discharge from his debts totalling €10.5m, blaming the professional advice he received as the reason why he did not tell the court about cash and property transfers he made to his wife.
Earlier this year, the US bankruptcy court in Boston found that Mr Drumm had "knowingly and fraudulently" sought to keep assets from his creditors by transferring cash and other property, totalling around €1m, to his wife.
In legal papers filed to the Massachusetts District Court in Boston today as part of his ongoing appeal process, Mr Drumm has accused lawyers for IBRC and the bankruptcy trustee of attempting to "vilify" him in their court documents.
Two weeks ago, lawyers for Anglo Irish Bank, now IBRC, and the court-appointed trustee Kathleen Dwyer rejected Mr Drumm's appeal grounds, arguing that although Mr Drumm blamed his advisers for his failure to disclose the transfers to his wife, he bore the responsibility for the omissions.
They said his entire approach to the US bankruptcy, "mocks" the basic principle of the bankruptcy process.
In the legal papers filed this evening, Mr Drumm's lawyers have said that regardless of how the bank and trustee attempted to "vilify" Mr Drumm, he was entitled to have his appeal "determined on the merits".
They said that "justice is meant to be blind", designed to serve "the unlikeable as well as the likeable, without bias".
They argue that "whatever one thinks of Mr. Drumm and for whatever reasons", he at all times provided full financial information to his advisors and relied on their advice.
He has since hired new lawyers to represent him for the appeal phase of this US bankruptcy process.
His lawyers have accused the bank and trustee of "mischaracterisations and attempted obfuscations of the facts" in their challenge to his appeal bid.
In the reply document, his lawyers said that the fact that the original bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey had found Mr Drumm "not remotely credible" was not relevant to the appeal.
They argue that "uncontroverted evidence" that Mr Drumm supplied all relevant material to his advisors and was victim of an honest mistake, cannot simply be ignored because Mr Drumm "was not credible".
They wrote that a "finding of lack of credibility by the debtor does not give the court 'carte blanch' to ignore the other evidence".
Lawyers for IBRCU and the trustee argued that Mr Drumm intentionally did not disclose his full financial situation to his advisors, however Mr Drumm counters today claiming that there was no "deceitful" interactions, and that he provided his advisors with documentation of all of this assets and transfers, including a full list of the transfers of cash and other assets he made to his wife.
The bank and trustee had also pointed out that Mr Drumm had failed to argue against eight of the 30 findings against him, but Mr Drumm today claimed that this was because the same arguments which he made against the other 22 findings, also applied equally to those eight charges.
