Why no prosecutions? - Village Magazine

4 — village July - August 2012

EMOCRACY depends on justice. Justice

must be dispensed evenly. This democracy

is subverted by the ﬂagrancy and impunity

of white-collar crime – crime committed by

the upper social classes, a type of crime that has ulti-

mately ravaged this country. At every level the criminal

system has been set up to ensure maintenance of the sta-

tus quo, and certainly not to challenge the privileges of

the wealthiest or most powerful in society. There is some

sign that progressive legislation is being introduced but

the culture in the criminal justice system and particularly

among the prosecuting authorities has allowed white

collar crime to fester and grow – from widespread tax

evasion to deception on a gigantic scale causing the loss

of billions.

Regulators raided the oﬃces of Anglo Irish Bank in

February 2009. Three years on, the investigation con-

tinues. This is far from the ﬁrst time that the State has

launched a lengthy investigation into white-collar crime.

The investigation into Merchant Banking’s failure to com-

ply with ﬁnancial regulations in the 1980s lasted for six

years before it was determined that the case could not

be prosecuted. Criminal investigations of planning cor-

ruption in the 1980s were abortive.

In 2011 High Court Judge Peter Kelly refused an

application from the gardai and the Oﬃce of the Director

of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) for a six-month exten-

sion to their joint inquiry into Anglo. “Will it [the inquiry] ever end?” he

thundered, occasioning privately-expressed outrage from the beleaguered

Gardai, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the ODCE.

Three separate investigations are ongoing into Anglo after its spectacular

collapse likely to cost the country around €25bn. It appears that the refusal

of ten witnesses to co-operate with the ODCE is one of the principal reasons

why the Anglo investigation rolls on interminably.

Last year the ODCE submitted ﬁve extensive investigation ﬁles on Anglo

to the DPP. In the ﬁrst quarter of 2012, it sent another three large inves-

tigation ﬁles to the DPP. The ODCE now regards the investigative phase of

its Anglo Irish Bank investigations as almost complete. Yet no charges have

been referred against Seán Ftzpatrick, David Drumm or Michael Fingleton.

It is entirely a matter for the DPP to determine if, and to what extent, any of

the extensive investigation ﬁles which she has received from the ODCE and

the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation warrant prosecution.

The biggest problem seems to be the mentality of civil servants in the

prosecuting authorities who do not see the urgency of the imperative to

prosecute those who have riven our country with their greedy corruptions.

There is evidence that the judiciary, led by some of the Tribunal judges and

Judge Kelly, but also by the likes of Judge Griﬃn in the Circuit Court who

recently sentenced Councillor Forsey for corruption, understand the sig-

niﬁcance of advancing these prosecutions, but the ODCE, DPP, Central Bank

and the Fraud Squad are timorous, and deferential in the face of the mon-

eyed and the professional.

Since its inception, the Competition Authority has secured 33 convictions

against companies and individuals, but the yield has been low: €600,000

in ﬁnes and no one sent to jail. The ODCE has secured around 300 convic-

tions, mostly in the District Court where ﬁnes and penalties are derisory. In

its 10-year history, the ODCE has never secured a single prosecution for

insider trading or market abuse, though last year it did ﬁnally secure a three-

year prison sentence arising from a company law conviction.

The only convictions related to the drawn-out tribunals have been of Ray

Burke for tax evasion, George Redmond (eventually overturned) and Frank

Dunlop for corruption, and Liam Cosgrave for oﬀences under the ethics acts;

as well as of Liam Lawlor for blatant obstruction of the Planning Tribunal.

More are needed.

Comparisons have inevitably been drawn

with the US where Ponzi scheme supremo, Bernie

Madoﬀ, is serving a 150- year jail term and where

even cuddly newspaperman, Conrad Black, did

porridge.

But there is little appetite in cosy Ireland to

replicate the US prosecutor’s panoply of wire-

taps, plea-bargaining, monetary incentives for

witnesses to testify against former colleagues and

the wholesale removal of discretion in sentencing

from judges.

Consideration needs to be given to granting

US-style immunity from prosecution to corporate

Why no prosecutions?

Corrections and

Clariﬁcations for the

May issue of Village

A letter in the May-June edition from Dermot

Lacey was addressed to John Gormley and not

to the editor as implied by a design error.

A feature in May-June’s Villager stated that

the striking down of Z15 zonings in Dublin

City arose from a case taken by the Sisters of

Mercy relating to a site on Grosvenor Road,

Rathmines, Dublin 6. In fact the case was taken

by the Sisters of Charity and related to all 108

acres owned by them, including open space

lands adjoining their convent and schools in

Sandymount, Dublin 4.

Apologies to all.

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