A confidential letter seen by the Irish Times shows that the Financial Regulator signed off on a €169 million loan from Anglo Irish Bank to Quinn Insurance in 2008.
It was unclear until now who had approved the loan, but today it's emerged that the Prudential Director at the regulator, Con Horan, signed off on this loan to the Quinn group to fund the purchase of the bank's shares.
Under company law a business is not allowed to lend money to fund the purchase of shares in itself- but exceptions can be depending on the circumstances.
The loan remains part of the €2.8 billion debt owed by the Group to the now state-owned bank.
A spokesperson for the Financial Regulator has declined to comment on the matter as it is a part of a criminal investigation- the Quinn group have also refused to comment on the subject.
