America has not jailed its bankers

[Analyzer]

I find this shocking.

It is like as if NYC has become as corrupt as the Irish establishment.

Do the Americans have any grasp of how serious this is for them as a people ?

[mayoonmymind]

At least SOME bankers were seen to be brought to justice. SOME is better than the inertia we suffer in this country
Will we ever see justice here. ? I doubt it.

[Houyhnhnm]

I find this shocking.

It is like as if NYC has become as corrupt as the Irish establishment.

Do the Americans have any grasp of how serious this is for them as a people ?

The worst party of it is that it will happen again. There will never be a banking scandal the scale of Anglo in Ireland again as the circumstances that created it will never again exist; it was a perfect storm of cheap credit, a regulator who actually coordinated the manipulation of balance sheets (fair play to you, Willie) and sycophancy towards bankers. In the US, however, they have a scandal like this in banking every generation. If top people aren't brought to justice this will only encourage the likes of Goldman to keep carrying on the frauds.

[Picasso Republic]

It doesnt matter what has happened in other jurisdictions re prosecutions. There are laws in Ireland and the judicial system should be seen to treat all citizens equally.

It is now several years since the infamous visit by the Irish Banks to the offices of the Finance Minister (the late Brian Lenihan), there have been arrests and subsequent releases, Garda files supposedly prepared for the DPP, announcements that 'charges were imminent' and yet almost nothing has happened to date.

I firmly believe that the Irish Public will be 'taken for mugs' yet again by the 'Ruling Class' and formal court proceedings will be overtaken by 'a tribunal', in which we are informed of what occurred (after many years of hearings and at great expense) and there are no penalties for the guilty (merely a perceived loss of face for those who are shameless in any event).

It galls me to see these individuals walk the streets of Ireland (and golf courses of europe), with their lavish homes, bursting pension pots and with the exception of the odd meaningless court appearance and a chat down at the local Garda Station, seemingly not a worry in the world. Although some have gone down the bankrupcy route, the shenannigans of Mr Fingleton, Montenegran Banks and UK Banks should demonstrate to the public that many of these individuals are far from penniless. When one reads that some 7000 Irish citizens were sent to prison in 2011 for non payment of fines and one understands the magnitude of some of the crimes allegedly committed by our 'Elite', it is sickening to see that nothing will ever be done.

Look at the timelines in the USA for the prosecution of the Enron board, Bernard Madoff and others and compare to the mentality of 'ahhh sure we couldn't prosecute a pal, I wonder would he be ok with a tribunal'. There is a very big difference between some and none, in fact if attempting to produce statistics for The USA v Ireland, the Irish result will return a #n/a as you cannot divide by zero.

The Fingleton story is not much better. We are told that the €1M pension top up cannot be seized, he must volunteer its return. Now perhaps I've missed something, but the money wasn't in the bank to give himself the top-up (the bank was insolvent), this is no different than writing yourself a cheque (to cash) and not having the funds - the money you acquire is not yours - its fraud.

When it comes to the Irish Ruling Elite, we would be very foolish to assume that there is an ambition to pursue a Prosecution and that there are genuine Prosecution and Defence teams. If the history of Ireland over the past two decades is anything to go by, there is likely to be an 'evidence gathering' exercise being pursued by the ordinary 'foot-soldiers' and a 'back pedalling' exercise being carried out by the 'top brass' - with worst case scenario of a tribunal.

Belfast Telegraph 23rd Sept 2010 (Sean Fitzpatrick Bankrupcy Hearing - extract)

".........A beaming Mr FitzPatrick (61), who was in court for the two-minute hearing, had no comment to make afterwards. There were extraordinary scenes following the brief court appearance when the disgraced banker was given a warm welcome by lawyers in the Barrister's Tea Room in the Four Courts......."

And some will argue that justice is actually taking its natural course. When something is described as 'extraordinary scenes' and 'warm welcome' one could realistically have the same mental image as one can imaging with the whooping and cheering following a successful election result. The Legal Profession already knew in Sept 2010 that this had all the makings of another very lucrative tribunal for them, the public footing both presecution and defence bills as SP is 'bankrupt' and what would be the outcome for their obvious 'pal' Sean, well not a lot actually, most of what he will have to fein shame for is already in the public domain.

Regardless of being in power or opposition for years, the ruling web or matrix of senior Political, Legal, Banking, and Business Classes are a group of 'players', they may have differing opinions, different backgrounds, qualifications and expertise, however each sub-groups survival is dependent on the others survival, and more importantly if any one sub-group was forced to defend themselves in court, they have the potential to 'bring down' the others - none of them are 100% clean, they also operate their own version of 'the green jersey' and will protect each other.

The frustration for the 'paying public' is that those to blame for the economic collapse will walk away with sizable pension pots and property assets (gained through their potentially criminal behaviour) as 50% of most of what they acquired will be retained by their spouses when they are 'joint' owners (this includes sizable pension pots).

Almost two years ago in March 2010, Leo Sharkey; a Barrister; penned a piece for the Irish Independent in which he outlined the charges which Sean Fitzpatrick would likely face - and to be honest, on the face of it some of them appeared to be a 'slam dunk' in terms of available evidence etc.

Unfortunately Mr Sharkey must now realise that he is not a part of the 'inner circle' as he had presumed some charges would be brought.

Extracts below - follow link for full article

What Sean FitzPatrick might be charged with - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie

WHAT actions of Sean FitzPatrick might give rise to potential criminal liability?

The three actions that may give rise to a criminal charge and prosecution are the concealment of loans for eight years, the Anglo 10 investment scheme (to prop-up the shares of Anglo Irish Bank), and the so-called "circular" transactions totalling some €7bn.

........However there is quite a number of other general and specific offences he may be charged with in relation to the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.

Basic theft and fraud offences
.......The main statute here would be the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 Such charges might include: making gain or causing loss by deception -- acting dishonestly with the intention of making a gain for themselves or causing a loss to another and false accounting -- making an untrue or dishonest statements in furtherance of the purpose of the above offence, or indeed altering or destroying any document for this purpose.

Company Law and other regulatory offences
.....such as insider trading, market manipulation, false accounting, conspiracy, concealment of an offence, competition law offences, criminal offences under UK law and EU law and possibly revenue offences. Under the 1990 Companies Act Section 197 & Section 202, there is a hybrid company law offence of false accounting that carries a criminal sanction.........Further to these specific Companies Act offences, Ireland has signed up to several international and European conventions and directives that have become law in Ireland -- the Market Abuse Directive now in law under the Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2005 and subsequent regulations define two main offences of insider trading and market manipulation.

Insider trading

Insider trading occurs when a trade has been influenced by the possession of corporate information that has not yet been made public.

Market manipulation

........... is any action that causes manipulation of the market, for example, where someone (not necessarily an insider) acts to distort the price of a share or other financial instrument by misleading the market or by engaging in artificial transactions or disseminating false and misleading information. This is quite a widely drafted provision and the nature of the Anglo 10 arrangement may fall foul of it.

General Directors duties and disclosure of loans

There are a number of general common law and statutory duties on the directors of a company..................... For example, Sections 41 to 43 of the Companies Act of 1990 require disclosure of all loans that are made to directors. Section 43 specifically refers to loans made to directors of licensed banks and the requirements concerning this disclosure.