The Big Bailout of the Eurozone (Another crisis coming? - Seriously)

[Avondhu star]

If you want the best prosecution lawyer who can prepare a case that will nail someone then you must be prepared to pay them top fees. You wont get that on the average industrial wage. That applies to every profession. This country begrudges anyone who makes good money and as a result you get tuppence halpenny performances. You can bet Seanies legal team were on good fees and bonuses.

[grounded]

Whitewash pure and simple. Is anyone even in the slightest surprised that he got off?

[Declan]

You can bet Seanies legal team were on good fees and bonuses.

with all costs to the taxpayer

[Smokin Joe]

I heard on Matt Cooper tonight that they eventually hired a few forensic accountants in about 2015.  Have we any idea what the salary would have been; and how that would compare to what they would earn in PWC or the likes?

The irony that the State is picking up the tab for Seanie's expensive legal team as a result of them failing to pay market rate to ensure they got the smart and capable individuals working on behalf of the State

[Rois]

I heard on Matt Cooper tonight that they eventually hired a few forensic accountants in about 2015.  Have we any idea what the salary would have been; and how that would compare to what they would earn in PWC or the likes?

The irony that the State is picking up the tab for Seanie's expensive legal team as a result of them failing to pay market rate to ensure they got the smart and capable individuals working on behalf of the State

Probably seconded them in from Big 4.

[Main Street]

I presume the thing wasn't proved beyond reasonable doubt??

Didn't even get to a jury decision

AFTER THE LONGEST-running criminal trial in the history of the State, Seán Fitzpatrick has been acquitted of all charges.
.......
Judge Aylmer also pointed to the extraordinary circumstances in which the ODCE lead investigator, Kevin O'Connell had admitted destroyed potentially relevant documentary evidence. This happened during legal argument in the first trial in May 2015 and emerged during that process.
That trial was then stopped and the retrial of FitzPatrick began last September. It was scheduled to last three months but quickly became bogged down in weeks of legal argument in the absence of the jury.

What are the chances of a solicitor having a panic attack just at the time he was close to reams of valuable evidence, then rushing to the shredder in a mad frenzied panic, destroying all that evidence, in one of the country's greatest banking fraud cases?
Not even Hitchcock could have dreamed up that episode.

[The Subbie]

If you want the best prosecution lawyer who can prepare a case that will nail someone then you must be prepared to pay them top fees. You wont get that on the average industrial wage. That applies to every profession. This country begrudges anyone who makes good money and as a result you get tuppence halpenny performances. You can bet Seanies legal team were on good fees and bonuses.

Correct

What I am curious about though is , was the decision to go with the budget option made purely for budgetary reasons or for more nefarious reasons ?
My head tells me the latter

[seafoid]

https://www.ft.com/content/872500e6-456b-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996

The Irish government has fired the starting gun in the IPO of Allied Irish Banks, Ireland's second-largest bank, which was nationalised at the height of the financial crisis in 2010. In a stock exchange statement on Tuesday night, Ireland's department of finance said it would sell about 25 per cent of the bank on the Irish and London stock exchanges, in what will be one of the UK's largest IPOs of the last 20 years. Analysts value the bank at about €12bn-€13bn, well below the almost €21bn invested by the Irish state at the height of the financial crisis. The IPO's price range and prospectus are expected by mid-June, the department of finance said. "The government's long-held policy is that the state should exit its banking investments in a measured and prudent manner, returning ownership to the private sector over time," finance minister Michael Noonan said. "The strong progress made by AIB and current market conditions mean that now is the right time to commence that process."AIB has made an annual pre-tax profit for each of the past three years, and reduced its non-performing loans from a high of 35 per cent of total loan book in 2013 to 13 per cent of total loans now.
   
The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index has risen almost 19 per cent in the past year, as investors warmed to the sector.Officials from the department of finance and AIB executives have met with close to 20 investors in recent weeks as part of their regular engagement. Key questions have centred on the Irish economy, which AIB's fate as a domestic bank is inexorably linked to, as well as state policies on banking and competition. The department of finance has reassured potential investors that it has no policy to curtail bank profitability and that it is not fixated on attracting new competitors to the market, people familiar with the discussions said.

[seafoid]

   https://www.ft.com/content/dd3a6f1c-6aea-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa

   The Irish economy is about a third smaller than expected. The country's current account surplus is actually a deficit. And its debt level is at least a quarter higher than taxpayers have been led to believe.

These are some of the startling results thrown up by a new measure of Irish economic activity adopted by Ireland's official statisticians. The measure, known as "modified gross national income" and presented as GNI*, is an attempt to de-globalise one of the world's most open economies.

GNI* — which will be published as an annual measure of activity alongside more traditional quarterly data such as gross domestic product — has added to the confusion surrounding how well the Irish economy is faring as it emerges from the worst financial collapse in its modern history, and what is making it tick.


   Using GDP data, the value of the Irish economy in 2016 was €275bn. Using GNI*, it was just €190bn. The lower figure was reached by excluding the profits of US companies with big operations in Ireland, such as Google, Microsoft and Pfizer, and the effects of the depreciation of the assets domiciled in Ireland by the aircraft leasing sector, for which Dublin is a global hub.

Dermot O'Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers, says Ireland "is one of a small number of countries that have such a scale of distortion as a result of foreign direct investment".

The new measure also revealed that Ireland's current account surplus, the difference between exports and imports, is a deficit when measured against the new benchmark.

[Rois]

David Drumm found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and of false accounting in criminal court.

[Insane Bolt]

David Drumm found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and of false accounting in criminal court.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44287948

Let's see what jail time he gets

[magpie seanie]

How the hell did he get bail? Crazy. His family are not in the State, he's facing 10 years plus in the slammer but ya - you can have bail. Nuts.

[macdanger2]

How the hell did he get bail? Crazy. His family are not in the State, he's facing 10 years plus in the slammer but ya - you can have bail. Nuts.

It's complete bollix. If he had held up a bank at gunpoint, would the c*nt have gotten bail?

[Hound]

How the hell did he get bail? Crazy. His family are not in the State, he's facing 10 years plus in the slammer but ya - you can have bail. Nuts.

It's complete bollix. If he had held up a bank at gunpoint, would the c*nt have gotten bail?

Well I presume it's a combination of flight risk and threat to society when they consider bail, so holding someone at gunpoint is probably not a great fact pattern!

The gardai were fairly adamant alright that he shouldnt get bail, though my own feeling is they tend to oppose bail almost all the time to cover themselves in the event of an absconder. But by opposing nearly all the time, it's harder for the judge to pay much heed and to determine the people who are genuinely high risk .

The 3 other found guilty got in and around 3 years. He seems to be the ring leader and has an additional charge he's been found guilty of, but I'd say it'll be concurrent rather than consecutive sentences as they are related. So I predict 4-5 year prison sentence with time off for what he already served in the US, so with good behaviour out in not much more than 2. On that basis, I'd say it's safe enough that he'll suck it up.

[magpie seanie]

How the hell did he get bail? Crazy. His family are not in the State, he's facing 10 years plus in the slammer but ya - you can have bail. Nuts.

It's complete bollix. If he had held up a bank at gunpoint, would the c*nt have gotten bail?

Well I presume it's a combination of flight risk and threat to society when they consider bail, so holding someone at gunpoint is probably not a great fact pattern!

The gardai were fairly adamant alright that he shouldnt get bail, though my own feeling is they tend to oppose bail almost all the time to cover themselves in the event of an absconder. But by opposing nearly all the time, it's harder for the judge to pay much heed and to determine the people who are genuinely high risk .

The 3 other found guilty got in and around 3 years. He seems to be the ring leader and has an additional charge he's been found guilty of, but I'd say it'll be concurrent rather than consecutive sentences as they are related. So I predict 4-5 year prison sentence with time off for what he already served in the US, so with good behaviour out in not much more than 2. On that basis, I'd say it's safe enough that he'll suck it up.

I thought I read somewhere yesterday that the sentence for one of the charges is 10 years and for the other there is no maximum sentence. Perhaps someone can confirm that??