I can start with an update instead of finishing with one!

The BBC have just woken up – as I was writing this piece, 10 minutes ago, the BBC have finally deigned to announce that yesterday morning the ex-Chairman of the Anglo-Irish Bank was arrested in Co. Wicklow.

Sean FitzPatrick has been with Bray Garda Gardai since yesterday morning, being questioned over £63 million pounds worth of personal loans which he had hidden from the bank’s shareholders by the simple expedient of moving them to another bank at the end of every financial year.

Sean owned a share in a Nigerian oil well, shares in property funds, hedge funds, had financed films and had a remarkable pension.

Not quite true – the shareholders had, but they didn’t know it, since it was all in his name.

Last week, Sean told the bank he could not repay the £63,000,000. Hence the dawn raid on his Co. Wicklow home.

Anyone found guilty of offences under the Companies Act and the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

I was puzzled this morning as to why the BBC was so reticent over this development, it was not unexpected, the Gardai have been investigating since Sean stepped down in December 2008.

It is the Anglo-Irish Bank after all.

1
Cailleach March 19, 2010 at 14:16

He’s been released – no mention of charges – http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0319/fitzpatricks.html

2
Demetrius March 19, 2010 at 16:45

He should have gone off shore to Bootle. Isn’t this the bank which took on the Post Office Savings, which includes incidentally the savings account of a large number of UK servicemen? The effect was that the Irish were liable for covering the losses of UK troops.