'Topsy turvy' is how the prosecution has described the circumstances surrounding an allegedly illegal loans for shares deal at Anglo Irish Bank.
Former Anglo executives Willie McAteer (63), Sean FitzPatrick (65) and Pat Whelan (51) deny charges of providing unlawful financial assistance for the purchase of Anglo shares in July 2008.
The jury has heard evidence Anglo Irish Bank lent over €600 million to the Maple Ten and the family of Sean Quinn in order to dilute the 29% stake the now bankrupt billionaire had secretly built up in Anglo, over concerns his position was destabilising the bank.
The prosecution says the transaction breached Section 60 of the Companies Act 1963.
In order to secure convictions the prosecution has to satisfy the jury beyond reasonable doubt that the loans were not issued in the ordinary course of the bank's business and that the three former Anglo executives on trial authorised or permitted the allegedly illegal lending.
It is their case Pat Whelan, former head of lending for Ireland, was fully involved in the Maple plan, Anglo's former Finance Director Willie McAteer was 'up to his neck' in it, and the bank's then Chairman Sean FitzPatrick was aware of the lending and did not stop it.
In his closing address to the jury, prosecution counsel Paul O'Higgins has claimed the loans did not receive the approval of the bank's credit committee and that their purpose was not for the benefit of the borrowers but to benefit the bank and its share price.
"Scarcely looking at what they were signing"
He said "Everything was topsy turvy'' and made to make it look like it was being done properly, but fundamentally he has said the lending was unlawful.
He told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court it was strange that the Maple Ten group of investors agreed to €60 million loans within an hour while "scarcely looking at what they were signing".
One of the Ten, builder Seamus Ross, gave evidence that he was not concentrating on the terms of the loan because he involved in a long-running High Court case involving pyrite in homes he had built.
Mr. O'Higgins suggested that maybe pyrite affects people's memory and he joked that it might be worth following Mr. Ross around Dublin because €20 million might fall out of his pocket and he would not notice.
Prosecution counsel said its not nice to see people in court who six or seven years ago could not have dreamt of finding themselves in these circumstances, but he added ''the law applies to every citizen''.
Concluding his final address, he told the jury ''there is no reasonable doubt in this case as to whether or not the accused are guilty''.
Brendan Grehan SC for Pat Whelan has begun his closing speech to the jury which he will continue after a lunch break.
