Senior people leave Goodbody over AIB scandal

[kerrynorth]

No details yet but I gather that tomorrow's papers (Indo I think) are carrying a story about 'senior' people being forced out of Goodbodys over something to do with dodgy trading in AIB shares. Vinnie B should have the story on his programme.

[Factorem]

This is really kicking off.

Another corporate scandal hits Ireland.

Will An Garda Siochana be wheeling out files and hard disks and doing dawn raids on directors' homes?

[kerrynorth]

Will An Garda Siochana be wheeling out files and hard disks and doing dawn raids on directors' homes?

Depends on whether any of them is a bit of an artist or not!

[cyberianpan]

Well their head of trading was fired over this scandal in 2001 ... wonder what end of the stick do the Indo have ?

Also it is most odd if some one else is being fired as this story has been public domain for years now

This is very old news

SBP
Broker takes Goodbody to court
Sunday, April 30, 2006 - By Kathleen Barrington
Multimillionaire stockbroker Bruce Ashmore scarcely bothered to hide the fact that his parting from Goodbody Stockbrokers in December 2001 was not exactly on friendly terms.
...
It later emerged that Ashmore was unhappy that the allegedly unsatisfactory reference had prevented him from getting the necessary approval from the Financial Regulator to set up his new hedge fund with his business partners Gerry O’Reilly, Paddy Shanahan and Johnny Fortune.

....
Assuming the case isn’t settled in the meantime, Ashmore is expected to claim in court that Goodbody sought to scapegoat him in respect of an arrangement between Goodbody and a third party.

The arrangement related to a mechanism that allowed Goodbody to trade in AIB shares. Ashmore will claim that this arrangement, and the manner in which it was operated, was known to senior management at Goodbody, including Barrett and Barrett’s bosses at AIB Capital Markets.

The allegation is a potentially explosive one, given that Goodbody was prevented under company law at the time from trading in AIB shares because it was a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIB. The law was eventually changed in 2001.
...
Industry sources suggested that the arrangement reached between Goodbody and a third party to trade in AIB shares did not breach company law and that there was legal advice to that effect.

The sources suggested that the arrangement was a technical one, which had been put in place pending a change of the law in 2001.

The sources further suggested that the Financial Regulator and the Stock Exchange had been informed of Goodbody’s plan to set up a mechanism to get round the problem of being unable to deal in AIB shares.

The regulator and the exchange declined to say whether they had been told


cYp

cYp

[spidermom]

Well artists are creative...and so are bankers..so its not as far off as you think!!!

[euroboy]

This is really kicking off.

Another corporate scandal hits Ireland.

Will An Garda Siochana be wheeling out files and hard disks and doing dawn raids on directors' homes?

I'm afraid all garda resources are currently being used up to investigate a dent in an art gallery's wall.

In any case, the gardai will only investigate if Joe Duffy raises the issue, then you can expect dawn raids, otherwise hold your breath.

[cyberianpan]

I'm afraid all garda resources are currently being used up to investigate a dent in an art gallery's wall.

In any case, the gardai will only investigate if Joe Duffy raises the issue, then you can expect dawn raids, otherwise hold your breath.

This issue isn't worthy of significant attention. The issue was that that stockbrokers couldn't engage in proprietary trading in their parent banks. This used to cause market liquidity problems and all sorts of muddles (as large clients would want to say sell shares of AIB to Goodbody & Goodbody would have to sling them on like a hot potato).

The law was changed to allow Davy & Goodbody trade BOI & Davy (back in 2001)

Prior to that Goodbody used an intermediary vehicle , "Charterhouse Investments" to temporarily hold AIB shares. Problem was that this vehicle made some profits for Goodbody ... as mentioned in the article above their head of trading was fired over this. All in all a very technical breach (law since changed to allow it) ,it's been fully public domain for at least 3 years, the Regulator know, the dogs on the street knew & the news is over 8 years old ...


cYp