Former Anglo executives found guilty of conspiracy to defraud

Willie McAteer and John Bowe misled depositors, lenders and investors by making the bank's corporate deposits look larger than they were

Two former Anglo Irish Bank executives have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud following the longest trial in Irish criminal history.

John Bowe and Willie McAteer misled depositors, lenders and investors by making the bank's corporate deposits look larger than they were.

McAteer has previously been convicted of making loans designed to illegally prop up the bank's share price.

The fraud involved so-called circular transactions.

They were designed to disguise the true state of the bank's financial health.

In 2008 Anglo loaned €7.2bn to another financial institution, ILP, which then placed the same sum back with Anglo.

The transactions were accounted for on Anglo's end of year balance sheet as customer deposits.

Deposits are way of assessing the market's and consumer confidence in a bank.

The prosecution said this accounting had been a "dishonest scheme" designed to mislead the people who would be looking at the bank's published accounts.

The jury are still considering their verdicts on two other bankers.

They are former Irish Life and Permanent executives Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick.

Anglo Irish Bank had to be rescued by the Irish government in 2009.

The bailout cost Irish taxpayers about 30bn euros (£23bn).