Resumption of My Arrested Series

Readers will recall that the next, ninth, part of the series was to address the question

so, do they just get away with it, then ?

I was not very happy with the answers that I was getting to my own question, but patience has proved worthwhile, at least to me. While I was contemplating and researching the question, a number of things happened that affect things a little bit:

• Eugene Sheehy, CEO of AIB when "the ship hit the rocks", agreed to forgo part of his pension
• The rump of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society, which had been consolidated as Irish Banking Resolution Corporation ("IBRC") was put into liquidation by the Government.
• The Liquidators quickly moved to sue Fingleton and others
• Seán Fitzpatrick and two of his former co-directors of Anglo have been formally charged with criminal offences. The charges relate to illegal concealment of loans to directors and to provision of loans by Anglo for the purchase of the Quinn stake in Anglo itself
• Ex-CEO Jim Lacey and some other former directors of NIB (now Danske Bank (Ireland)) were disqualified as directors

As I have previously observed, the crimes on which the Anglo Three will face jury verdicts are not of any real consequence as causes of the Collapse. It is matter of great regret as far as I am concerned that almost all of the time and other resources of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement("ODCE") were diverted into the project of prosecuting these matters.

The other developments listed above are more significant, in my view. Together, they point the way to how, where the will is present, it is possible for the law to do something in recognition of relevant personal failures on the part of individuals even if, as it appears, no crimes of significance were committed and arrests are therefore ruled out.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing my conclusions in this regard.

Do remember, though: I am, I hope, not indulging in vindictiveness and my use of the phrase "getting away with it" must not be understood as suggesting that any crimes contributed to the Collapse, or that anyone guilty of a criminal offence connected to the Collapse is going unpunished. I cannot guarantee, of course, that the latter is not happening: all I can say is that I am aware of no evidence that it is, and everything that I have seen over the last five years suggests that such evidence is lacking.