Former Irish bankers jailed after longest criminal trial

Dublin

THREE former senior Irish bankers were sentenced last Friday to a total of more than eight years in prison in Dublin after being convicted of conspiring to defraud customers and investors during the financial crisis.

Irish Life & Permanent Plc's former chief executive officer Denis Casey, and two former executives at Anglo Irish Bank Corp - Willie McAteer and John Bowe - were convicted in June after the longest criminal trial in the country's history. All three had pleaded innocent to charges that they helped create a false impression of the financial health of Anglo Irish Bank through facilitating a circular payment in 2008.