Two former directors of Anglo Irish Bank, the rogue lender that crippled Ireland's economy, have been found guilty of hatching a multi-million euro loans-for-shares plot months before the bank's collapse.
Former chairman Sean FitzPatrick was on Wednesday cleared of all charges linked to the €619m (£509m) scheme in July 2008.
Pat Whelan, of Malahide, Co Dublin, who turned 52 on Thursday, and William McAteer, 63, of Rathgar, Dublin, had denied providing unlawful financial assistance to a select group of clients to buy Anglo shares from a doomed investment by former billionaire industrialist Sean Quinn.
But the pair were found guilty by unanimous decision on 10 counts of providing €450m loans.
The jury acquitted the ex-bankers of providing loans to six members of the Quinn family.
The 12 jurors returned the verdicts after an 11-week landmark trial and almost 17 hours of deliberation at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court - the first prosecution following the bank collapse in January 2009 that brought Ireland's economy to its knees.
The ex-bankers face a maximum of five years in jail for each offence.
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