Who were the Maple 10 and why were they given loans to buy Anglo shares?

This was an attempt to slash the size of a secret stake businessman Sean Quinn built up in the lender through complicated financial instruments called contracts for difference (CFDs).

Using CFDs, Mr Quinn bet on the performance of shares without actually owning them. But in reality he had built up a 25pc stake in the bank worth around €2bn.

Anglo's then chief executive David Drumm and chairman Seán FitzPatrick learned of the size of the stake at a meeting with Mr Quinn in September 2007.

Over the following months, Anglo's share price fell and there were concerns Mr Quinn could not continue to fund losses on bets.

If he was forced to unwind the stake in a disorderly fashion, a glut of Anglo stock would have ended up on the market, destabilising the share price.

Mr Quinn borrowed heavily from Anglo to cover his losses, but his situation worsened considerably after the so-called St Patrick's Day Massacre in March 2008 when 30pc was wiped off Anglo's share price.

Despite Mr Quinn's reluctance, an agreement was put in place where he would crystallise his losses by buying 15pc of the 25pc CFD holding. The remaining 10pc was to be sold in the market.

However, efforts to find buyers came to nothing and a scheme was devised to approach wealthy clients and offer them loans totalling €450m to buy the shares. The investors selected by Anglo were developers Seamus Ross, Gerry Gannon, Paddy McKillen, Joe O'Reilly and Paddy Kearney, businessman Gerry Conlan, auctioneer and developer Brian O'Farrell, and builders Sean Reilly and John McCabe.

While Mr Drumm and two others committed offences in advancing the loans, there is no suggestion any of the 10 investors did anything wrong.