BOSTON HEARING:ANGLO IRISH Bank finally got to question its former chief executive David Drumm in Boston yesterday.

The media was excluded from the deposition which took place in the offices of Anglo’s Boston attorneys and which was preceded by a last-minute row over whether it could be videotaped.

The bank wanted to question Mr Drumm about his loans, his property dealings in the US, his financial dealings with his wife and his residency status in the US.

On Monday, Mr Drumm filed an emergency motion seeking to have the Boston Bankruptcy Court prevent Anglo from videotaping the deposition. He said he had “reason to believe Anglo may misuse any recording” of the deposition.

Since the former chief executive, who owes €8.5 million to the now nationalised bank, filed for bankruptcy in October 2010, the proceedings, he said, had attracted an unusually large amount of media attention.

He said he was “opposed to having his image and testimony aired on TV and/or shown to groups of people not associated with this bankruptcy proceeding”.

Mr Drumm said he had legitimate concerns that his former employer would leak the video “either for its own political gain or to harass” him. He said information might also be shared with third parties.

“Soundbites and out-of-context video clips will lead to substantial danger of unfair prejudice” to Mr Drumm’s reputation and privacy interests.

However, in a reply filed early yesterday morning, Anglo said Mr Drumm was trying to “thwart or at least interrupt” the bank’s attempt to investigate its claims against him.

The established rules permitted videotaped depositions, it said, and it contested Mr Drumm’s concerns that excerpts of the video might be leaked.

Since the case began, it said, Mr Drumm had been making claims that the bank might use information for other than legitimate purposes but he could not point to an instance where this had allegedly occurred.

The bank said it bore mention that Mr Drumm had himself decided to avail of the benefits of US bankruptcy law. The bank said it had “serious questions as to whether Mr Drumm will testify fully and honestly in his deposition” and accordingly wanted the court to be in a position, if the bank proceeded further against him, to be able to evaluate his credibility at trial and behaviour at the deposition.

Judge Frank Bailey ruled on Monday that Anglo should keep the video of the deposition confidential until a further order of the court and that Anglo should file a response to Mr Drumm by 8.30am yesterday morning.

Anglo has indicated it wants to consider the deposition before deciding if it wants to make further claims against Mr Drumm.