The conversation was between John Bowe, head of Anglo Irish Bank’s capital market, and senior manager Peter Fitzgerald. The recordings are from the bank’s internal telephones and the date on the recording relates to a time when the UK was embroiled in the financial crisis in 2008.

Top secret tapes have been uncovered by the Irish Independent newspaper of a phone conversation between two top executives of Anglo Irish Bank in 2008. The recordings detail how these executives lured the state to give the bank €7 million for a bailout, an amount that was pulled out of nowhere. Despite negotiators being fully aware that the millions was not enough, Bowe said:

Just, as Drummer (then-CEO David Drumm) would say, ‘picked it out of my arse’.

The idea for behind money request was that once the state started the payments, they would not stop. This would also result in taxpayers having “no choice but to continue to provide loans to support their money”.

The voice recordings have given Irish taxpayers a glimpse into the goings-on of the bank’s top executives and the consequences it had on the country.

[Source: Business Insider, Independent, YouTube]