Ireland jails top bankers over 2008 banking meltdown

Three of Ireland's former bank executives were sentenced on Friday to between two and three-and-a-half years in prison on charges they conspired to defraud investors, in the highest-profile prosecutions over the country's 2008 banking crisis.

Former Irish Life and Permanent Chief Executive Denis Casey was sentenced to two years and nine months. Willie McAteer, former finance director at the failed Anglo Irish Bank, and John Bowe, its ex-head of capital markets, were given sentences of 42 months and 24 months respectively.

All three men were convicted of conspiring together and with others to mislead investors, depositors and lenders by setting up a 7.2 billion euro circular transaction scheme between March and September 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.