This conviction goes a long way to restoring our faith in justice system
In the wake of the crisis, the public demanded justice – maybe vengeance, too
IN HIS closing speech in the trial of former Anglo chief executive David Drumm, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC implored the jury to consider the climate in the months leading up to a series of transactions which led to what is arguably the most significant white-collar conviction in Ireland.
Yesterday Drumm was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting relating to a series of transactions conducted at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The €7.2bn circular transactions – routing from Anglo through Irish Life and back to Anglo through a non-banking Irish Life subsidiary – made it look as if Anglo’s customer deposits were healthier than they really were at a time when the bank was, in fact, on the brink.
In his speech, Mr Grehan urged that Drumm should not be criminalised for “trying to save the bank”. He was, argued the lawyer, merely answering “Ireland’s call”.
A custodial sentence is all but inevitable for Drumm, given recent sentencing trends.
You think you will never forget the political and financial climate which contributed to the collapse in all but name of Ireland’s banking sector and the arrival of the Troika to these shores. Landmark events such as the St Patrick’s Day Massacre on Anglo’s shares, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the bank guarantee, and the late finance minister Brian Lenihan berating RTÉ after ‘Liveline’ customers flooded Joe Duffy with calls about how they were taking their money out of banks and moving it to the Post Office and even under mattresses.
Or that forlorn image of the same Brian Lenihan going to Brussels, on his own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to himself ‘this is terrible’ as he travelled to sign the terms of Ireland’s humiliating bailout.
In the wake of the financial crisis, the public demanded justice – maybe we wanted vengeance, too.
But the wheels of justice as they pertain to alleged ‘crime in the suites’, as distinct from traditional ‘crime in the streets’, turn painfully slow in this country.
This can have the effect of subduing our memories of, and interest in, the events which gave
rise to the banking collapse and with it the near collapse of the economy.
Critically, it also corrodes public confidence in the administration of justice as it relates to the prosecution of crimes in the banking and financial sector which can pose as much of a threat to our national security and wellbeing as organised crime.
When former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick stood trial along with two colleagues in the spring of 2014, an overflow court was set up at the Criminal Courts of Justice to facilitate the then-insatiable public interest.
Fast forward to yesterday when Drumm was convicted by a unanimous jury after what was a relatively low-key trial attracting some public interest but nowhere near the interest of years gone by.
The State’s prosecutorial record in relation to the banking crisis that engulfed the economy in 2008 has been decidedly mixed.
In the first major banking trial in 2014, Mr FitzPatrick was acquitted by direction of the trial judge in respect of charges relating to loans given to 10 customers of the bank. His co-accused, Patrick Whelan and Willie McAteer, were each given 240 hours of community service after being found guilty by a jury.
Three former Anglo Irish Bank officials were jailed for between three years and 18 months for conspiring to conceal or alter bank accounts being sought by Revenue. But two of those tried, Tiarnan O’Mahony and Bernard Daly, had their convictions quashed less than a year later by the Court of Appeal.
Their colleague Aoife Maguire’s 18-month term was reduced to time served after she appealed her sentence.
The former finance director of Irish Life and Permanent, Peter Fitzpatrick, was acquitted of helping Anglo Irish Bank defraud the markets as part of a €7.2bn scheme in 2008.
Three bankers, John Bowe from Anglo’s treasury department, Willie McAteer, the bank’s former director of finance, and the former chief executive officer of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey, were also tried for conspiracy to defraud in relation to the €7.2bn transaction.
Those three were handed prison sentences ranging from two years to three and a half years in July 2016. The Court of Appeal later upheld the convictions of Bowe and Casey while McAteer abandoned an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
There was a major public outcry last year when Sean FitzPatrick was acquitted by direction of a trial judge after he ruled that witnesses had been coached when giving statements during an investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and that their evidence was contaminated.
And yet, for all the hits and misses, yesterday’s conviction of Drumm is hugely significant.
It shows that juries can rise to the challenge of trying lengthy and complex financial trials, that a jury of our peers are deeply committed to the rule of law and can tell the difference between answering Ireland’s call and a massive con.
It is true that prosecuting regulatory matters – some trials and appeals are still outstanding – is complicated and costly. But the greatest risk – and the greatest cost – is not trying at all.
Restoring faith, however small, in the administration of justice, is a price we should all be willing to pay.