David Drumm’s bankruptcy appeal has been rejected

Eleven months after a United States bankruptcy judge denied him a discharge from bankruptcy because he lied and fraudulently and knowingly failed to disclose €680,000 in cash transfers to his wife Lorraine, the 49-year-old Dubliner has lost his appeal against that withering ruling.

The damning ruling from District Court Judge Leo T Sorokin that the original bankruptcy findings relating to Mr Drumm’s “intentional and fraudulent” failure to list to property transfer to his wife were correct could well hamper his bid to get bail. In a 22-page written judgment, Judge Sorokin said he was satisfied having reviewed all the material that no mistake has been committed by the bankruptcy court.

Without a declaration of bankruptcy and a discharge from his debts, he remains personally liable for his debts unless he decides to appeal the second judge’s ruling to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and wins there.

Mr Drumm remained in custody last night after he was arrested in the USA last month.

Judge Sorokin found that Mr Drumm had employed a “tug of war” strategy in relation to disclosing his finances, and said that he could not now blame his advisors for that strategy.

He said Drumm’s excuses included he did not know why cash transfers to his wife were omitted; he understood when he read the SOFA that it was asking exclusively for real estate; he forgot about the transfers.

In total he rejected 30 of the 52 counts that came before him.

He said the original bankruptcy court finding that Mr Drumm had “adopted a strategy with respect to truth-telling and full disclosure” to suit his purposes was a “well-reasoned” finding, “amply supported” by the evidence.

The Irish Government has requested that he be extradited to face criminal proceedings in relation to transactions carried out when the bank was facing collapse during the financial crisis.

He is now being held in custody in MA pending a full hearing of the extradition matter.