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ANGLO EXECUTIVES PAT Whelan and Willie McAteer will be assessed for community service following their conviction for their roles in providing illegal loans totalling €450 million to 10 individuals.
Judge Martin Nolan said that it would be ‘unjust’ to impose prison sentences on the Anglo pair because a State agency “led them into error and illegality”.
The judge said that he could not be certain Whelan or McAteeer knew they were in breach of the law but were, nonetheless, in breach.
He said that the crime was “not a victimless one” but repeatedly said that refereced how the Financial Regulator did not warn the men or see any problem with the proposed deal.
In such circumstances, he ruled that it would be “incredibly unjust” to impose prison sentences on the men.
They will be put on probation until 31 July when their suitability for community service will be assessed.
The two men were facing a maximum of five years in prison and/or fines of €6,348 but Judge Martin Nolan told a sentencing hearing today that the fact that they were acting with the knowledge of the Financial Regulator and under legal advice counted in their favour.
Whelan and McAteer, who were both senior figures in the bank when the deal was put together in July of 2008, were convicted under Section 60 of the Companies Act earlier this month for providing the illegal loans so that the ‘Maple 10′ developers could buy shares in Anglo.
They were found not guilty of six other charges relating to loans provided to the Quinn Family.
The court had earlier today heard from defence counsel who argued that the men’s actions were “demonstrably done as a matter of last resort” and were “not done in a dark room” but rather out in the open.
Former Anglo CEO Seán Fitzpatrick, who was chairman at the time of the ‘Maple 10′ loan plan, was found not guilty of all the charges against him.
The sentencing hearing was adjourned until 21 July to assess their suitability for community service.
More to follow.
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More like Experts are right when they agree with us, and they’re wrong when they disagree :(
This idiot is rarely right but his arrogance knows no bounds questioning the authority of international experts in a field he hasn’t a clue about. The man is a complete buffoon, and a dangerous one at that. The sooner this government is overthrown or FG stage an internal coup to get rid of this clown the better for us all.
Tom
Idiot
Buffoon
Dangerous
Overthrow
Coup
Clown
The selected word are culled from a couple of sentences you have just contributed on a Dail reply to a question by the Taoiseach.
Is it necessary to remind whoever you are that the cowardly anonymity that you avail of when using the language of an out of date left wing terrorist is something that your preferred form of Government would not allow.
It obviously is necessary to remind you that Mr Kenny was the democratic choice of the Irish electorate to become Taoiseach of this Nation and neither the person nor the position should be the subject of such a boorish and libellous assault.
Crawl back into your Social Welfare funded garret.
^^^^ Now there’s hyperbole. Why do you assume he’s on social welfare? Such a narrow-minded, bigoted view of things. You’re obviously using a pseudonym as well, “Richie Rodgers”, which makes you a total hypocrite. I’d agree with Tom in the sense that the man is a moron without a script in front of him. This isn’t the first time he’s essentially declared himself intellectually superior to people in an arrogant and condescending manner. Remember how he addressed Micheal Martin when he challenged him to a debate prior to the referendum? “I wouldn’t want to embarrass you”. I’m no Fianne Failer and certainly no fan of that hypocrite Martin but I know that in any debate scenario he’d mop the floor with Enda Kenny. Frankly, the man seems like a complete idiot that managed to wing his way to the top of Fine Gael and became Taoiseach because of a slew of broken pre-election promises and a protest vote by Irish people against FF.
Pay no attention to rodgers, it’s nothing but a sad troll with no home life and all it does is troll subjects that might give people a chance to say what they feel about kenny & .co
This fool insults to throw a subject into disarray.
Just ignore it.
rodgers the troll accusing someone of “cowardly anominity”… coming from the biggest coward on the journal , that’s rich.
At a time of financial emergency, the ability to scrutinise what a government blatantly not acting in the best interests of the majority of its citizens are up to.
This is another attack on our democracy….and from the weasels who promised us transparency pre-election.
werejammin
Could you be claiming that the FG party which grew out of a failed fascist movement are involved in an attack on democracy?
Enda idiots are often wrong as well and you and your advisor’s are no experts.
Why are they called “experts” then?!
Because they’re likely to get it right.
Ah that’s a great definition of an expert.
If an expert says it can’t be done, get another expert.
David Ben-Gurion
I was told once that an expert was someone who came from far away and did powerpoint presentations an showed slides.
But I do like this one.
“If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.”
Peter Ustinov
If it costs on average 600 euros to retrieve information then the filing system is truley messed up or incompentenceis a prerequiset to be employed by this government
Right wing Governments…oops labour are meant to be a socialist Party
I would cost a small fortune to look up stuff on Enda kenny
They are determined to make all news on this be about €15, as though that’s what the problem is. They keep mentioning it as though that’s what it’s all about. €15 IS NOT the problem.
Also, the cost of retrieval IS NOT €600. This was a figure Bertie pulled out of his …, um, mentioned back in 2008, which was later confirmed to be wrong by the Dept of Finance.
Even if it did cost this for civil servants to fulfill an FOI request, it’s not like they were not going to be paid if there was no request. The clue is in the name… they are ‘civil servants’, they provide a civic service. They are paid to do so. Fulfilling FOI requests is such a service. We pay them for this through our taxes.
Exactly, another example of double taxation and there they are pretending that the issue is the amount!
I don’t know why the Irish people are putting up with this.
Article 6 of the Irish constitution clearly states as follows.
(All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.)
In other words WE THE PEOPLE TELL THEM OUR SERVANTS what we want as national policy,is this not national policy and is this not one of the most important requirements for the common good of the people.
Wake up everyone and start taking back our country.
Reply
Hahahaaaa my five point mass emigration plan worked. No one left to care. Don’t bother replying.
But Enda has a mandate.
more likely a date with a man!
If I had the money I would demand an FOI answer as to just how many members of this government are members of Common Purpose and how many of the top civil servants have been on their brainwashing courses. Or is that 2 FOI’s.
That will be €30 please and your questions are deemed frivolous :-)
For anyone who believes that Ireland is a democratic state the proposed FOI legislation is undemocratic in it’s intent and a significant concern.Hard to justify and harder to stomach.
Jim: How am I going to explain the missing documents to the Mail?
Sir Humphrey: Well this is what we normally do in, circumstances like these. [hands over a file]
Jim: [reading] This file contains the complete set of papers, except for a number of secret documents, a few others which are part of still active files, a few others lost in the flood of 1967. [to Humphrey] Was 1967 a particularly bad winter?
Sir Humphrey: No a marvellous winter, we lost no end of embarrassing files.
Jim: [reading] Some records which went astray in the move to London, and others when the War Office was incorporated in the Ministry of Defence, and the normal withdrawal of papers whose publication could give grounds for an action for liable or breach of confidence, or cause embarrassment to friendly governments. [to Humphrey] Well that’s pretty comprehensive. How many does that normally leave for them to look at? [Humphrey says nothing] How many does that actually leave? About a hundred? Fifty? Ten? Five? Four? Three? Two? One? Zero?
Sir Humphrey: Yes Minister.
“Experts aren’t always right”
So that’s why the people of Mayo keep electing you Enda.
Whats up with traffic today. Mental!
Foi’s in the road.
The “Experts” seem to be right when it suits the Govt.
This is getting worse and worse.
This Govt is a total disgrace and terrible for the Irish People.
Well said Enda inspirational leadership yet again
Take your tongue outta there! Ain’t no brown nosing in my department…..now make me tae, quick snap.
Kennocchio
“freedom costs a buck o five”
Seems fair after all someone has to be paid to do this non essential work
have your say