Former Anglo-Irish bank boss arrested

Irish police arrested the former head of Anglo Irish Bank on Tuesday as part of a long-running investigation into fraud at the lender, which collapsed during the financial crisis. Sean FitzPatrick, 64, who was chief executive officer before he became chairman of the bank and is now bankrupt, is due to appear in court later Tuesday. "Gardai have this morning arrested a male in his 60s. The man was arrested in the Dublin area," the Irish Police, or Gardai, said in a statement when asked to confirm FitzPatrick's arrest. "This investigation is part of an ongoing investigation by Gardai from the Garda bureau of fraud investigation and the office of the director of corporate enforcement into alleged financial irregularities at a financial institution." FitzPatrick was arrested at Dublin airport, the BBC reported. It is the third time he has been arrested as part of the three-year probe into Anglo-Irish. Two former senior executives at Anglo Irish Bank -- Willie McAteer and Patrick Whelan -- appeared in court on Monday charged in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the bank. Anglo Irish Bank, which had been Ireland's third biggest bank, was nationalised two years ago and has since required a number of multi-billion government bailouts. It became a symbol of the problems which hit Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy when a property boom imploded and led to the country requiring a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. After being nationalised it was renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. In March it said it had cut its pre-tax losses to 873 million euros ($1.160 billion) in 2011 compared to its record loss of 17.7 billion euros in 2010.