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2 Anglo Irish Bank executives convicted of fraud

DUBLIN (AP) — Two former executives of Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless lender that brought Ireland to the brink of bankruptcy, have been convicted of committing fraud in a loans-for-shares scandal.

Thursday's guilty verdicts against Willie McAteer and Pat Whelan are the first criminal penalties imposed against bankers at the center of a 2008 financial crisis that resulted in an international bailout for Ireland two years later.

A Dublin jury found former Anglo finance director McAteer and lending chief Whelan guilty of providing 450 million euros ($625 million) in secret loans to 10 top customers. The 10 were then required to use the money to buy Anglo's shares in a doomed 2008 effort to bolster the bank's stock value.

The jury acquitted former chairman Sean FitzPatrick of the same charges Wednesday.