Fine Gael wants to put rogue bankers in jail. The Minister for Justice has failed to get prosecutions of bankers after 18 months of investigations.

White collar crime is a threat to the financial stability of the state and its perception globally as a safe place to invest and a good place to do business. White collar crime needs to be treated as seriously as any other form of crime, and needs to be prosecuted quickly and effectively to act as a deterrent for would-be perpetrators and to change any sense that culture of corporate wrongdoing is acceptable in Ireland.

Current Problems

  • Although the government actually own Anglo Irish Bank, its agents have been unable or unwilling to conduct an investigation which resulted in any proceedings being brought, despite substantial evidence of criminal misconduct. For example, the government actually refused the first request for the fraud squad to be brought into Anglo. For example, the government couldn’t ensure Anglo cooperated with the investigation.
  • The Garda Fraud Squad went into Anglo with the Director of Corporate Enforcement on February 24 2009.
  • The investigation has been going on for 18 months into a bank with no outcome, just the promise of prosecutions.
  • The Director of Corporate Enforcement has repeatedly sought additional staff and funds in order to conduct his investigations quickly, and this has been denied by the government, even though he is the sole watchdog on corporate wrongdoing which has cost the state €4 billion in the case of Anglo alone. The increase he got to do this investigation was only €1.1 million euro, a pathetic 0.000275% of the cost of the wrongdoing.
  • Interest on bank loans held by rogue directors continues to mount every day – for example, on October 1st 2009, KPMG reported that Sean Fitzpatrick had stopped paying on his loans of over €100million, the interest on which amounts to €400,000 per month.
This is simply a matter of political will. In the US, investigations into much more complex financial wrongdoing, involving many multiples of the amounts in Anglo, have been investigated and prosecuted quickly, enabling their economy to recover and move forward with confidence. For example, Bernie Madoff was jailed on 12th March 2009, just 91 days after the authorities began to investigate it. The difference is political will.

Fine Gael Solutions
  1. Demand updates to the Dáil on weekly basis on the progress of the investigation.
  2. Require the investigatory authorities to report to the Minister three months after an investigation begins, with a timeline for completion not to exceed six months. In order to encourage compliance with this deadline, the Minister will have to look for permission from the Oireachtas to sanction an investigation which is expected to take longer than that, or which exceeds the six month window.
  3. Government should sanction all resources needed to conduct an investigation quickly.
  4. Where there is a delay on court lists of more than one year, Government should create temporary fraud courts for speedy trials.
  5. Enact legislation to make serious fraud a crime to be tried in the Central Criminal Court, reflecting its very serious effect on Irish society.
  6. Enact legislation to provide for an unlimited fine to be imposed in lieu of or in addition to a jail term for a conviction of serious fraud/fraudulent trading. The current limit on the fine to be imposed on fraudulent trading is only €63, 486.90.
  7. In the future, FG will amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to include corporate corruption.