From top: Former Anglo Irish Bank executive Willie McAteer; former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey; and former Anglo Irish Bank executive John Bowe on their way into the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin this morning
Judge Martin Nolan sentenced three former bank executives at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning for their part in a €7.2bn conspiracy.
Former Anglo Irish Bank executive John Bowe was sentenced to two years; former Anglo Irish Bank executive Willie McAteer was sentenced to three and a half years; and the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey, was sentenced to two years and nine months.
The three men were found guilty last month of conspiring together and with others to make Anglo Irish Bank’s balance look like it had €7.2 billion more than it had – in order to mislead investors.
Orla O’Donnell, on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke, reported on this morning’s sentencing.
She said:
“He [Judge Martin Nolan] said this was a very serious conspiracy, a conspiracy on the public, on anyone who was looking at these accounts. He said people were entitled to rely on these accounts. He said he believed the starting point for prison sentences was eight years in this case.”
“Now he did say there was a lot of very good mitigation put forward, on behalf of the men. He spoke about the fact that this took place in the context of a dysfunctional financial market, the men didn’t gain any direct profit from their crime, they were acting in the best interest of their companies… they had very good mitigation in terms of people giving character references for them.”
“They were family men. They had all endured a lot of stress, a lot of criticism from the public since these events had happened. But, at the same time he said, that this was a very serious offence and he had to impose a prison sentence.”
Meanwhile…
Judge Nolan uses Anglo sentencing to give the now almost traditional kicking to the financial regulator of the day Patrick Neary
— Conor Gallagher (@Courts_hack) July 29, 2016
Also took aim at Anglo auditors, Ernst&Young @EYnews. He said that it beggared belief that they had signed off on the end of year accounts.
— Conor Gallagher (@Courts_hack) July 29, 2016
“They should have known what was occurring if they were doing their job properly,” he said, asking if it was a case of wilful blindness”
— Conor Gallagher (@Courts_hack) July 29, 2016
Three former bank executives sentenced over €7.2bn conspiracy (RTE)
lol conspiracies arent real this judge needs to take his tinfoil hat off and stop watching reruns of the x-files
Nolan takes in for account that theyre family men .. yes, family men who helped burden EVERY family in ireland with debt.
I think if you were paying attention beyond the catchy headlines you may have read that, wrong as it was, the offence they’re convicted of resulted in no loss to either bank or the state. For the real cause of that I’m afraid you’ll have to stretch your attention span enough to reading about pro-cyclical fiscal policies, bad lending decisions and poor financial regulation.
are you related?
Another in a line of random sentencing decisions from this guy.
“They were family men.”
Is there a seperate sentencing schedule if you’re married? If only I had known………..
Yes you start that sentence directly after the honeymoon.
Boom.
That made me LOL
And they wear suits to work. Let’s take that into account too.
A backwards little island.
We are going nowhere. Fast.
These scumbags were given very soft sentences. They wrecked thousands of peoples lives! A lot of people commited suicide over mortgage debt. There’s probably petty thieves or burglars who have gotten heavier sentences for stealing €500 worth. These guys stole/defrauded in the millions!
No real justice in Ireland
I am gobsmacked at this.
We are talking about a fraud that cost BILLIONS. The state has been burdened with its aftermath for decades. People’s lives wrecked. And FF most popular party again.
The judge said that these men didn’t benefit directly, that they had the “green jersey on”. I wonder if their own pensions, stock holdings and bonuses were checked to see exactly what financial incentive they had to do this.
State should have put in a victim impact statement.
The fraud didn’t cost billions. It actually cost almost nothing. Both banks would have had the same fall in value (ie almost total) regardless of the fraud.
Broadsheet don’t do nuance
And the financial regulator who gave this transaction a nod and a wink is still getting off scot free
Excellent point.
+10000 Agree. Not forgetting the auditors. More chiwawa than “watch dog “
It looks really bad for Ernst & Young, especially from an international perspective. Makes you wonder what else auditors have been turning a blind eye to.
After Enron, the reputation of Big Audit is in flitters.
The judge said he believed the starting point for prison sentences was eight years in this case.
But they got 2 years? I will never understand this.
Listen, it be ok, they had the green jersey on under the expensive suits.
Though not sure which shade of green the jersey was.
Maybe puce.
Pity the lads couldn’t plead
“Troubled upbringing”
or
“History of substance abuse”
to get even lighter sentences.
They’ll be all out inside a year and they can break int song again: “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles”
Deutschland = Holland?