The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has published its Annual Report for 2012 which shows that during 2012, the ODCE submitted further investigation files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) concerning alleged offences related to events at the former Anglo Irish Bank on the basis of which the DPP directed that a total of 60 charges be preferred against a number of individuals. The offences were under both section 60 of the Companies Act 1963 and section 197 of the Companies Act 1990.
These issues subsequently moved to the courts and the Office worked to support the DPP in discharging its disclosure obligations to those persons against whom legal proceedings are pending. This work, according to Ian Drennan, Director of Public Prosecutions is “likely to be a significant and continuing feature of the Office’s work for some time to come.”
During 2012, the Office also: secured rectification, on a non-statutory basis, of directors’ loans issues to an aggregate value of in the order of €55m; successfully secured, in over 200 cases, compliance on the part of a range of parties with their obligations under the Companies Acts through more formal measures; secured the disqualification of 19 individuals, and the restriction of a further two, on foot of High Court applications made by the Office; the restriction of 227 company directors, and the disqualification of a further 15, on foot of liquidators’ applications to the High Court subsequent to the ODCE having scrutinised the underlying liquidators’ reports; secured 16 criminal convictions in the District Court. The office also filed further three cases to the DPP for consideration.
Mr Drennan was previously the Chief Executive of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA). He is the second ever Director of Corporate Enforcement, having taken over from Paul Appleby in August 2012.