There’s no place like a home away from home, especially if you are being pursued by the media.
But the media, Irish version, has caught up with former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive, David Drumm, who has forsaken Dublin for the more tranquil setting of Cape Cod.
Drumm, according to the Irish Independent, has also rented his luxury Dublin home after it failed to sell for a “knockdown” €2.3 million.
Drumm, who owes Anglo Irish Bank €8.3 million in loans, according to the paper, asked Dublin estate agents O’Farrell Cleere to sell the house when he moved to Cape Cod.
The Dublin house was named after Sudbury, a town in Massachusetts where Drumm had previously lived.
Drumm’s latest digs are not, however, in Sudbury, but in breezy Chatham.
Drumm was one of the top three executives at Anglo Irish when it was sucked into the vortex of the Irish financial industry’s post-Tiger collapse.
The bank was rescued from oblivion by the Irish government, which means ultimately the taxpayer. The other two former executives, Sean FitzPatrick and William McAteer, are still living in Ireland where they have been in the full glare of media scrutiny.
In Drumm’s case, the glare had to cross the Atlantic.
“It is thought gardai may invite Mr. Drumm to make himself available voluntarily for interview by fraud officers. There can be no extradition, as Mr. Drumm would only be required for questioning and would not be charged,” the Independent reported.
Local police in Chatham have confirmed that they have not been contacted by gardai in relation to Drumm. Locals were not aware until very recently about the background to the banker living in their midst.
Drumm bought his new American home in March, 2008 for $4.6 million (€3.4m).
The website, capecodonline.com, reported that Drumm has largely escaped the notice of locals, “even as members of the Irish media flock to town in search of an interview.”
Those media members include a newspaper reporter, Aine Hegarty of the Irish Daily Mirror, and Charlie Bird, RTE’s Washington-based U.S. correspondent. The visits by reporters have resulted in no trespassing sign appearing on the lawn of the Drumm home.
According to capecodonline, Drumm, in July, 2009, filed a declaration of homestead on the Chatham house, a move that shields the property from being used to satisfy debts up to a value of $500,000. The declaration can be used only for a primary residence.
