Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick has been declared bankrupt by the High Court.
In a brief hearing, lawyers for Mr FitzPatrick told the court he was bowing to the inevitable after he failed to secure the support of Anglo Irish Bank for a private deal with his creditors. Mr FitzPatrick owes his former employer €110m.
Senior Counsel Mark Sanfey said that Mr FitzPatrick had a preliminary meeting with his creditors last Wednesday at which he presented them with draft proposals for a private deal.
Mr Sanfey said there would be a significantly better outcome for creditors with the private scheme of arrangement than if Mr FitzPatrick were declared bankrupt, and he said several creditors spoke in favour of the proposals.
But Anglo Irish Bank said it would not support any proposals by Mr FitzPatrick. Mr Sanfey said that in those circumstances Mr FitzPatrick considered that he should bow to the inevitable and not try to force a vote of creditors before the court that he could not possibly win.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern said in the circumstances he would make an order adjudicating Sean FitzPatrick a bankrupt.
Mr FitzPatrick's assets and debts are now under the control of the official assignee, Chris Lehane, a court-appointed official under the bankruptcy legislation.
Lawyers for the official assignee sought liberty from the court to engage a financial adviser to deal with Mr FitzPatrick's estate. Lawyers for Anglo said the bank did not believe there would have been a better outcome if it had approved the private scheme of arrangement for creditors.
Senior Counsel Paul Gardiner said it was clear from the outset that the scheme was never going to work.
Mr Justice McGovern said he was not going to allow the bankruptcy court to be used to ventilate issues between the two sides. He said if there was anything else to be said it could be said in another forum.
Mr Fitzpatrick has submitted a detailed statement of affairs to the court as part of his attempts to secure a deal with creditors. The statement outlines his assets, including his share of investment properties in Smithfield and Killiney in Dublin as well as an apartment in Marbella in Spain and his share of the €1.5m family home at Greystones in Co Wicklow.
The investments listed include more than €14m in a Nigerian oilfield and millions of euro in property investments in countries including France, the UK, Berlin, South Africa, Poland and Hungary.
The documents submitted to the court show that in total Sean FitzPatrick has assets of €51.2m and liabilities of just under €148m, leaving a shortfall of almost €97m.
The case will be back before the court in a fortnight's time.
Watch Seán FitzPatrick's interview on RTÉ's One To One in 2007 here
