"Many on Wall Street have argued that there was no criminality in this financial crisis, merely a collective delirium brought about by soaring profits and mistaken assumptions about risks. I and others have disagreed, but so far have waited in vain for the sort of prosecutions that we predicted would come. We have seen very little in the way of senior officer or boardroom level prosecutions of the people on Wall Street who brought this country to the brink of financial ruin. Why is that?"
This was the question that Senator Ted Kaufman from the highly pro-business state of Delaware, America's own on-shore tax haven, asked US prosecutors and regulators in September.
That same question is being asked today in Ireland as it awaits the price for a 90 billion euro bailout. It has continued to be asked in Britain, Iceland, Greece and around the world - especially as bankers cheerfully return to bonanza bonus business as usual.
More than three years after the financial crisis began, none of those responsible has been personally punished, only the taxpayer. The bankers most responsible, even while in some cases no longer occupying their plush executive suites, still enjoy the enviable country club life of Reilly, if bankrupt or unemployable.
Sean Fitzpatrick, former chairman of the taxpayer-rescued Anglo Irish bank, was arrested in March, but not charged, over "financial irregularities" - such as, perhaps, his 122m in concealed loans of which 70m cannot now be repaid. The only other banker arrested over the Kamikaze property-lending policies of Anglo and Allied Irish Banks is former Anglo finance director William McAteer. Former chief executive David Drumm would probably be arrested if he returned from the US, where he has filed for bankruptcy owing Anglo 8m.
None of the "golden circle" of ten unnamed "long-term clients", mostly property developers (who else), who participated in the secret 2008 Anglo share support operation has been arrested for their role - financed with 451m in Anglo loans secured 75% on the now worthless 10% stake. Quite right too, as they will probably not be charged over this particular public and stock market deception, perhaps because regulators knew some if not all of the details. And those in the "golden circle" were known to government ministers, and everyone wanted Anglo to survive.
That same patriotic excuse may also save the directors of Irish Life& Permanent for helping to inflate Anglo's balance sheet with 7bn of "window dressing" deposits more virtual than real.
Irish company law may also create problems with a prosecution over the Fitzpatrick loans, as they may not have had to be disclosed to shareholders - as it was a bank and so normal business! Also there appears to be some evidence that they were not kept secret from Anglo's auditors Ernst & Young. Although who knew what there may also be an issue.
Whether Fitzpatrick or anyone else will be charged and convicted for breaking the Irish banking system remains to be seen. Despite the public rage, the political elite have appeared to want to limit the damage to their former friends. But after the humiliation of surrendering financial policy to the IMF and EU some scapegoats may now be politically unavoidable.
ETA: that's all from the latest Private Eye.
