Ireland Begins Arresting Top Bankers Responsible For 2008 Crash

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Ireland arrests bankers responsible for 2008 financial crash

Ireland are following in Iceland’s footsteps by jailing its top bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crash. 

Following from last year’s mass incarceration of 26 bankers in Iceland, Ireland is going to prosecute the 2005-2008 CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, on 33 criminal charges.

Anonhq.com reports:

These include two charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting relating to €7.2 billion in deposits placed in Anglo Irish Bank accounts by the then Irish Life and Permanent, between March and September 2008.

16 of the 33 charges relate to unlawfully authorizing billions in loans (to be invested back into Anglo Irish Bank) to 16 wealthy investors, in a bid to artificially prop up Anglo Irish Bank’s share price before its December 2008 collapse. Each of the 33 offenses carries a 5 or 10 year jail term, except for a single count of conspiracy to defraud, which has a maximum penalty of an “unlimited term of imprisonment” under Irish law.

According to Cape Cod Times, Anglo Irish Bank was nationalized in January 2009, but the financial crisis before and after the nationalization destroyed Ireland’s economy, with taxpayers forced to shoulder costs of $32 billion to cover bad debt and repay investors. The collapse of its economy forced Ireland to take EU and IMF bailout packages worth up to £77 billion in November 2010.

Hide-And-Seek With A Swindler

Drumm stepped down from Anglo Irish Bank in December 2008, leaving Ireland for Boston in June 2009 after the Bank’s collapse. The collapse was said to cost Irish citizens around €30 billion, close to one-fifth of Ireland’s annual output. In 2010, he filed for bankruptcy under U.S. law; however, a Boston court dismissed his application in early 2015, saying he had lied and acted in a fraudulent manner in his bid to be declared bankrupt in the United States. Finding Drumm “not remotely credible,” the court ruled that he could be held liable for debts of €10.5 million in Ireland.

Subsequently, Ireland sent an extradition file to the U.S. government, outlining charges to be prepared against Drumm on 33 different offenses. Consequently, Drumm was arrested by U.S. Marshals in October 2015, spending much of the next five months in a maximum security prison south of Boston. Though he began a series of court requests to fight extradition and be allowed bail, he changed his mind after two failed attempts to secure bail and came back to Ireland in March 2016 to contest the charges.

A day after his extradition, back to Dublin from the U.S., Drumm walked free from the prison after securing bail in Ireland when his parents-in-law agreed to a €100,000 independent surety from their joint bank account to satisfy the bail conditions. The father of two daughters also provided his own cash surety of €50,000.

The Latest Twist

In a new legal filing to a U.S. appeals court, where he is seeking to reverse the ruling of a Massachusetts judge (who found that he had deliberately failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in asset and €870,000 cash transfers to his wife) and have debts of €10 million discharged with a declaration of bankruptcy. Drumm has accused the Anglo Irish Bank and the official overseeing his U.S. bankruptcy of a “tirade of vilification” of him to distract the court from considering his appeals arguments, and in particular, the clear testimony of “credible witnesses other than Drumm.”

https://twitter.com/MallowNews/status/725375055308410880

Will He Escape, Again?

Drumm faces two trials: One at Easter, 2017, and the second in January 2018. These will be in relation to the 33 offenses he committed during his time as chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank. The trial will involve 120 witnesses and minutes from up to 15 company meetings. According to the documents filed in the court, there are “millions of documents” and more than 400 hours of phone conversations linked to Anglo’s dealings with Irish Life and Permanent.

Despite signing an affidavit which stated, in part, “that probable cause exists to believe that I committed the 33 offenses for which extradition was requested,” Drumm — considered a serious flight risk by the prosecution with the “capacity to marshal significant sums of money” despite having €8.5 million of debts — denies any wrongdoing.

57 Comments

  1. From: CEU.Enquiries@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk
    Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 1:59 PM
    To: david@ukfamilylawreform.co.uk
    Subject: A response to your recent enquiry – Ref: TO2016/03936
    Dear Mr Mortimer,

    Thank you for your correspondence dated 14 January to the Treasury in which you asked whether the law allows bank regulators to be held to account and when the bankers who caused the crash will be held to account.

    Firstly, it may be helpful if I explain the current framework of financial regulation. Financial services are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which are statutory independent non-governmental bodies. They are self-financing organisations funded via levies on financial services firms. Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of financial services, it has no general power of direction over the regulators and therefore cannot intervene in individual cases.

    The Government believes that it is vital that the FCA and PRA are accountable to the Treasury, to Parliament and to the public, including for the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which they use resources. There are a number of features in statute which support this accountability, for example:

    ? The regulators are both subject to full audit by the National Audit Office (NAO) and the NAO having the associated ability to launch VFM studies on the FCA;
    ? The Treasury can order an independent inquiry into the regulators’ economy, efficiency and effectiveness; and
    ? There is a requirement for the regulators to make a report to the Treasury, to be laid before Parliament, where there has been regulatory failure.

    Also, the government recognises the concern that many people have that bankers should be held to account for misconduct. The previous government took a number of steps to reform financial regulation in this country, and strengthen our ability to taken action for misconduct in financial services. This involved reforming the regulatory system to establish two properly focussed regulators – the PRA and FCA. This new approach to financial regulation enables the PRA to concentrate on ensuring banks are prudently and competently managed, reducing the risk of serious financial failure. It also ensures that the FCA can concentrate on ensuring that all financial services businesses conduct themselves properly in their dealing both with ordinary retail customers and in wholesale financial markets. As part of these reforms, made in the Financial Services Act 2012, the government also introduced a new criminal offence to ensure that criminal penalties, including imprisonment, can be imposed on people who manipulate key financial benchmarks, such as LIBOR.

    The previous government also supported the work of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which was appointed by Parliament in July 2012 to consider and report on the professional standards and culture of the UK banking sector, and incorporated measures to give effect to its recommendations in the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013. These include new arrangements for regulating individual conduct and accountability in banking (the “Senior Managers and Certification Regime”) and a new criminal offence which will mean that criminal penalties, including imprisonment or an unlimited fine, can be imposed on bank senior managers whose reckless misconduct in managing a bank results in that bank’s failure. These measures will come into operation in March 2016.

    Thank you for taking the trouble to make us aware of your concerns.

    Yours sincerely,

    Darren Creamer
    HM Treasury
    https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury

  2. Totally exaggerated story. One banker arrested. Not at all similar to Iceland.
    get your facts straight and stop sensationalising mediocre stories

  3. Switzerland Follows Iceland In Declaring War Against The Banksters

    Their effective revolt against the banking class, who drove the tiny nation into economic crisis in 2008, is the brightest example yet that the world does not have to be indebted in perpetuity to an austere and criminal wealthy elite. In 2015, 26 Icelandic bankers were sentenced to prison and the government ordered a bank sale to benefit the citizenry.

  4. Can we do this in Australia, starting with the Prime Minister ( a merchant banker with cash stashed in the Caymans and mentioned in the ‘Panama Papers’ ?

    • Yes it can be done anywhere if the people unite and forget about all the distractions they put in front of us to divide and conquer…..The will of the people can change anything if they unite and organize…..go do it!!!!

  5. Isn’t it interesting that they had to get ‘LOANS’ from the IMF and EU?  The real culprits behind this, and the loans that the government take, go against the Social Security Funds in the US anyway.

    • The IMF and the EU all globally run and the top of the scam.  That is the main point of all of this is to get countries indebted to IMF and World Bank etc.  The globalist have to be prosecuted in the international courts and their banking cartel disbanned…..Its the biggest scam on earth.

  6. Well the other three bankers sentenced only got 2-3 years, and never had to repay a cent…..  some justice… Probably be similar for this guy, after years of costing the tax payer more money with the trial.  Those banks should be sold off and money given to the taxpayers.  Fat chance!

    • They deserve more, but even two to three years is enough risk to prevent a hell of a lot of future theft. As it is, in the US, only the very small fish ever get anything at all. 

  7. My life in Liberal Klans Oregon!!

    Arab/Muslim Americans are treated less than animals! We are called Sand N…

    We are being prosecuted in a daily basis! High tech lynching, institutionally racism! Especially for Arab women!!

    Oregon former late A.G. Dave Frohnmayer had my SS# blocked & prevented me from getting employed, made me homeless and jobless!

    He was the one who started & initiated the fraud of taking over our homes!!

    His bank robber Rep. Bob Ackerman, Doug McCool and Margaret Hallock hired Scarlet Lee/Barnhart Associates, forged my family’s signature, gave our fully paid Condo to the thief Broker Bob Ogle. And his mom Karen Ogle ” who was working in the USA Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 1997-1999 & administered the power of attorney to have my sister signed it and add her son to the deed,”, without my signature!!

    Bob Ackerman had never responded to the Summon from the Court, and the sheriff never served him or arrested him either!!

    ThIs is what kind of criminal government we have in Oregon!!

    I ran five times for public offices! Voter Fraud & Sedition by Lane County government to protect & cover up for the two criminals Frohnmayer & Ackerman!!

    Oregon government is complicit with their crimes!!

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/justice4nadiasindi

    http://www.davefrohnmayer.com

    Please sign petition.

    https://www.change.org/petitions/a-g-eric-holder-sent-jeff-merkley-gov-john-kitzhaber-investigate-abuse-of-power-and-criminal-forgery-by-former-oregon-a-g-david-frohnmayer-and-lane-county-government#share

  8.  …once again you didn’t understand the most important problem!…you are condemning the accounting fraud as a way to punish the man – as a vengeance!…accounting fraud is the less serious problem!…the real problem was reckless lending to obtain potentially high profits that after turned into very high real losses!…with a small detail in the middle…banks don’t trade with there money…they trade with other peoples money…that means that they must be extremely careful…and they were the opposite – they were extremely reckless…in the name of extreme greed of very few, they putted everybody else hard savings at high risk and loss!…this is the extremely serious crime to be judged ! …and to be severely punished…accounting fraud is a consequence of reckless lending!..when do people understand this?…once and for all !..otherwise we will continue to face these crisis forever!…please, sort this out, once and for ever!…

    • Banks lend with money they create out of thin air. It’s called fractional reserve banking. Book: The Creature from Jekyll Island, G. Edward Griffin. The US Fed is modeled on the Bank of England. It’s the biggest con job in the World.
      John Doran.

    • In the US Capone was finally convicted of income tax evasion – sometimes you have to charge people with what you can convict them with.

    • You got that right..nice to know someone knows their history.  This banking cartel is like a vampire squid sucking the life from humanity at every level.  End the “Fed” and its subsiduaries.

  9. What?  White-collar criminals brought to justice?  How Un-American.  In the US they graduate into politics!
     

  10. Iv just sent the Irish Police the were about,s of John Key, New Zealand s PM He was working in the Irish banking sector with these low lifes were doing there crooked dealing.

  11. And why again do US bankers, like Jamie Diamond, not also have to face trials? They created fradulent banking instruments. They failed to use due diligence to ensure that loans were issued on good terms. They inflated the ratings on these dodgy instruments. And then the Obama administration just ignored all this stuff. 

    • The laws in the US are so constructed as to make it virtually impossible to charge a businessman with anything unless he outright confesses to the crime in court (one US banker actually did confess, and he did in fact to go prison.) And it was the Bush administration that set the policy of just ignoring this stuff, Obama only took power in the aftermath (the election was end of 2008, so his first taste of power was in 2009, post-bailout. Even if Obama had gone after them, there is no way he’d have pushed any kind of consequence through that a corporatist majority supreme court wouldn’t have overruled.

    • they are ignoring, and STILL backing the damn bankers here in the UK too…. the govts. are as corrupt as the bankers in our countries

    • No the casino gulag in banking began in 1999 when Clinton (another criminal in the White House) repealed the Glass-Steagle Act and allowed investment banking and commercial banking to be on the world grid together whereas commercial banking (stock market) was kept separate from the world economy….hence the derrivitave debt that is the problem.  That was not allowed before with the Glass-Steagle act….so Clinton started the banking decline in this instance.  Ten years earlier it was some other scam.  About every 10 years or so the elites perpetrate some banking scam to take more of our hard earned money and they get away with it thanks to our governments.  Our government need to be held accountable and they aren’t and its the people fault because they would rather watch reality TV and be brain dead than do anything constructive.  Brainwashing has worked well in the USA.

    • Yep,,,it is a conspiracy within the entire planet with this banking cartel and the government that helps them screw us.  Get rid of your congress…..they are criminal.

    • Just an FYI Clinton signed the law (the financial modernization act of 2000) but it went through the Senate almost unanimously. 

    • The Graham-Leach Bliley Act, which repealed portions of the Glass-Steagle act had bipartisan support from congress and the house of representatives. Since, it passed with such an overwhelming majority, Clinton didn’t have the veto power to stop it from being signed into law. Granted, he could have vetoed it as a mere symbolic gesture. The fault for this mess lies on many politicians, not just Clinton.

  12. There are about zero politicians who have the courage to stand up to the Bankers in America. We have to change them out or accept the fact that we are subservient to the ruling oligarchy. The time for revolution is now.

  13. He headed for the States in the hope he could get away with his scheme as the US has not indicted those responsible for the collapse.  Too bad, so sad he got extradited.  Good for the Irish.  

  14. So who made all the money from the loans and share profits? Why are they not being held accountable also? You cant use one man as a scape goat whilst the others all profit and walk free. They are the true criminals 

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