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NEWS HAS FILTERED through again this week that many of the people that the Anglo Irish investigators are looking to interview are still refusing to cooperate.
It’s preposterous that it is taking as much time as it is.
We are now told that some of the transactions are inter-related and that many of the transactions are more complex than first thought. That reminds me of an old football chant used when your own team are not performing that well: ‘What a load of rubbish’.
That’s true on two counts. Firstly on the basis that they have been unable to get these important witnesses to give evidence but also on the basis that no charges have been brought. I’m certainly no expert on the Irish legal system and have no desire to be but false accounting is a crime everywhere in the world. I can’t think of anywhere that it would be described as legal and there will be any amount of episodes to bring to account. I faced one specimen charge in court but there were many thousands that could have been added.
Targest the weakest link… and the dominos will start to fall
What I really don’t understand though is the spectacularly lethargic approach to actually doing something. Divide and conquer has been an investigation technique used since the beginning of time. Whether you are trying to infiltrate a complex terrorist organisation or quiz a couple of high-flying bank executives, the principal is the same. Target the weakest link, offer a way out of the situation or a plea bargain in exchange for evidence and the dominos will start to fall.
I, for one cannot understand why this case is no further down the line. We approach the third anniversary of the infamous meetings to prop up Anglo Irish Bank but still nothing is done. I was tried, convicted, sentenced and released in a four and a half year period. That is justice being done, lessons being learned and moving on. I doubt that anyone has any confidence that anything will be set in train in this case by that same landmark.
The investigators need to do more than fend us off with tired excuses
I think the general public have the right to know why, rather than being offered a ‘load of rubbish’ that witnesses are failing to cooperate. When an episode is of significant national interest it is important that action is taken. Take the hacking scandal in the UK: Select committees are formed, questions asked and as we have seen, the protagonists start to trip themselves up over what they actually knew. The investigators need to be doing more than fending us off with the same tired excuses. Leave this too long and I can guarantee that if this case comes to court, those charged will respond to questions with the rather over used but preferred response in banking investigations ‘ I can’t remember’.
For the individuals concerned, if you have nothing to hide come clean, speak out. Not in a month or two or as long as you and your lawyers can eke out of the situation but NOW. Even for those who do have something to hide as it will serve you better in the long run.
It must be a very fraught and trying existence at the moment. All holding firm and refusing to cooperate but at some stage one person will break rank and ensure self preservation over the common purpose. These are all intelligent people who know that their actions were wrong. Their actions weren’t undertaken with any sinister purpose or deliberate attempt to profit personally.
The greatest relief was when my sentence was handed down
I’m sure that they panicked, saw an insolvent bank on the precipice of disaster and did what they thought was right at the time. There would have been immense conflict, the last-ditch attempts to salvage something but at all times knowing that they had crossed the line.
After fleeing Singapore, I spent a number of fretful days hidden away in hotel rooms trying to avoid the public glare. As the story unfolded I was still very selective in the information that I passed on to my family and friends. Trying to convince everyone that it is not as bad as it seems is ultimately fruitless as nobody is more aware than them of exactly how complicit they all are. It will feel as if it is the right thing to do at the moment but coming clean and giving evidence will ultimately serve them better and bring the whole sorry episode to an end.
It will allow families to come to terms with what may ultimately happen and will allow you yourselves to start to recover from this terrible event. Hiding away will keep you going for a while but that will eventually take a very serious toll. An uncertain future is possibly the most difficult thing to come to terms with, from being on the run, locked up in prison and facing speculation over the length of sentence, the greatest relief was when the sentence was handed down and I could start to recover. Start moving on by doing the right thing now.
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I think the longer they drag it on the more likely it is that people will forget which is what they want. The fact that some are “refusing” to cooperate is outrageous but they are getting away with it. The law is not only as ass in this case it is also a joke.
Took the words out of my mouth.
I don’t think you can compare a lone ranger to the team of fraudsters that took down Anglo. Their circle which likely includes most if not all of their friends and family offers them something you didn’t have Nick – safety in numbers. The only people these fraudsters are facing up to each day are the people who were standing next to them. Their elitist circles protect them from the kind of ‘fraught and terrifying existence’ you experienced while shacked up in a hotel room alone.
If you’re looking for a reason as to why the investigation seems lethargic you should consider too that there are likely many former and current ministers and other power-figures that don’t want the truth about anglo to emerge proper. Not all are willing to see just how deep a hole the investigators can dig.
A truer word was never spoken and this is why no one will ever be convicted!
Nick lesson for president
After seeing the pillorying of Norris over the past three days I won’t be surprised if this gains traction!
It’s an inside job. Ireland is still run by the same people with the same money with the same power. Expect Change? Get Nothing.
The Establishment does not go after it’s own. White collar crime has never been treated seriously here, the same way as cartels, rackets, monopolies, rip offs have always been tolerated.
correct well put
The investigators can hardly have their hearts in their work. I wonder why? Is it a class thing? Lower paid guys showing too much respect to designer suits?
off with their heads i say
ah the proliteriat has closed ranks me lad,s and lassies we are not are not suppose to know what golden boy,s are behind this and knee deep in the shit
This needed to be said and given the paucity of facts at his disposal I cannot fault Nick Leeson on his lack of references if only because we have learnt NOTHING in three years except that the perpetrators STILL aren’t talking!
When a government with all the powers of the fraud squad and the criminal assets bureau cannot act you know you are looking at systemic corruption.
Culpability in this extends all over the upper echelons of Irish society, business and the professions
- hyped property prices from estate agents and valuers
- collusion between estate agents and valuers and mortgage providers
- reckless bordering on criminally negligent lending practices in banks mortgage providers
- questionable bordering on corrupt and improper planning and unsustainable developmetn decisions by local authorities and An Bórd Pleanéala
This suggests widespread collusion between the great and the good in order toe “keep the party going” at the time and a great “circling of the wagons” since then to hide what they were up to.
Mark my words, this goes far beyond the banks, and right back to Fianna Fáil’s disastrous National Spatial Strategy, which paved the way for mega-developments abutting one-horse towns in the West of Ireland that were devoid of the commensurate infrastructure, schools, employers, services or amenities to support wholesale imposition of new populations.
Back in the Nineties, I supported the Kildare Meath Wicklow Planning Alliance and we all saw what was coming down the motorway, the wholesale obliteration of rural towns in favour of unbalanced, unsustainable out-of-town shopping centres, tourist and leisure developments.
Back then we knew you could not plan a country by political fiat, nor wholly disregard the scale of local and national need as a reasonable guideline for sustainable development, with risking disaster.
We fought and won our battles in Newtownmountkennedy and the result is a balanced development of a local needs town.
Alas, one cannot fight every battle and certainly not one against the political machine that was Fianna Fáil in those days, even when ti was clear to them they were running away with themselves and they were on a treadmill to disaster.
In summary, this didn’t start with the banks and it didn’t stop at the banks, but all the roads led to and from the banks.
Expose the accounts and the e-mails to the light of day and these will lead elsewhere and we will find out the answer to the obvious question – Who Benefited?
newtownmountkennedy have they sorted the busses yet ? anyway bet those who are refusing to cooperate have something on the powers that be, bit of blackmail goes a long way in this country and having lived in UK and USA i cannot believe like Nick nothing is being done here, only systemic corruption is the reason, shop lifters are treated worse and most of those (not all)are just trying to feed themselves these are just rich greedy bast***s who consider themselves untouchable
I don’t understand why the high court can’t just issue a court order forcing them to co-operate. If they don’t- by law they are in contempt of court and should be sent to the Joy until they cooperate. If the Rossport 5 were sent to prison for non cooperation then surely these assholes should be too. A few hours in there will persuade them. I like your article Nick, but one of the earlier commenters is correct about safety in numbers. All of these fraudsters have brass necks because they’re buddies have each other backs. The new supreme judge of the high court seriously needs to look at this.
Exactly my thoughts on the matter. It’s time to take a hard line on those who are not cooperating
Nick Leeson there, unsurprisingly unaware of the difference between principal and principle.
Just lock up the buggers !
I wonder if the countrys top judges and law enforcement had any partnerships with land developers and bankers during the boom?
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