Stick the fingers up

“If they saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean?”  Former Anglo-Irish exec John Bowe explaining to a colleague why it was best not to initially divulge to the Central Bank the true extent of the bank’s losses.  (As reported in the Irish Independent)

Maybe I’ve been gone a long time, perhaps I’ve even picked up some fancy-schmancy English notions since I came to live in London. But the last time I checked, when two people are recorded in conversation, conspiring to wilfully misrepresent financial information to a third party with a view to later extorting sums of money far in excess of those initially requested; that would constitute serious wrongdoing.  

But apparently it’s not that clear cut. The real remedy for this situation according to An Taoiseach, is yet another parliamentary inquiry. More throwing good money after bad and kicking the whole affair back into the long grass.

In my naïve way, I would have fondly imagined that a halfway decent prosecution lawyer could argue that contained within these recordings was compelling evidence of some kind of fraudulent intent at least, if not actual conspiracy to defraud. And what’s more, he or she wouldn’t need several years to build the case. The fact that these tapes have been in the possession of the Gardaí for the past four years perhaps tells its own little side story of institutional inertia that only just falls short of abetting.

It’s well-worn story; part of Irish folklore really at this stage.  The only thing that really changes in this age-old drama of gombeens and cronies is the magnitude of the sums of money at stake. The dupe is always the same and if The Plain People of Ireland wish to remain typecast in this role they should continue reading from the script.