When Irish people do what their government won’t

It has been clear for some time now that the ideal of equality before the law has been buried.

The US.  Department of Justice made it clear a few months ago, after it had declined to press criminal charges against a string of banks (Citi, Wachovia and HSBC), that ‘Too Big To Fail’ meant while such institutions could be investigated and fined, they could not ever be found criminally guilty, because that would endanger their continued survival. Thus TBTF equals TBTP.

The list of G-SIFI’s (Globally Systemically Important Financial Institutions – both banks and Insurers) is therefore a list of those financial institutions that are now above the law. If it profits those institutions, and those who own and run them, to disregard the law, they can and will because all they face is a fine. A fine is just another marginal cost of doing business. A tax. And a small, discretionary one at that.

In Europe we have had no similarly outright admission by the State that TBTF means TBTP. Instead the G-SIFI lists of banks and insurers have been published without anyone in government caring to make it clear that the State has taken it upon itself to raise the golden financial class above the law.

Of course there is one loophole – just a tiny one and one that is easily ignored – but one nevertheless. And that is that if no Public Prosecutor will take a Bank to court then it is still possible for an ordinary citizen to do so (Of course how easy or impossible it is depends on the country). But In Ireland it is possible and one man, Michael Smith,  has decided to try.

Michael Smith is a former barrister and the owner and editor of The Village magazine in Dubiln. He, like me and many others, has had a long interest in the on-going case of the UniCredit whistleblower, Jonathan Sugarman, AKA WhisteblowerIRL. It was Mr Smith who accompanied Mr Sugarman when he went to to talk to the Irish authorities about what he knew. It was at that meeting that Mr Sugarman was told by the authorities that they might well prosecute him if he told them about the crime over which he had resigned from UniCredit, whereas they could not promise to prosecute the bank.

For those of you who don’t know, the crime in question is actually very straightforward. Mr Sugarman’s job as Risk Managere at UniCredit, was to make sure the Bank was solvent at the end of each day – to check its liquidity. Mr Sugarman became alarmed when he found, at the height of the Bubble, that UniCredit was in breach of its requirements. Not by just a little but by huge sums, and not on one rogue day but regularly. The Irish Law is very clear. It was Mr Sugarman’s job to tell his bank and the regulator of the breach. This he did.

The bank told him to shut up. The regulator ignored him. Of the very few concrete actions taken by the authorities perhaps the most symbolic was that they removed from the Central bank’s web site the document in which the law can be seen. You can however still see the law for yourself, here in sections 9.4 and 10.

Sickened by this attitude Mr Smith, in consultation with Mr Sugarman, has decided if the Irish DPP will not insitute an investigation/prosecution against UniCredit Ireland and several other Irish based banks such as Anglo, then The Village will.

  In an open letter to the Irish DPP Mr SMith calls their bluff. Essentially he asks is the Irish state’s legal aparatus whoring for the banks or does it still have a single grain of honour left?

You can read the editorial here. The  whole article is only available in the latest print issue. You can read the  two previous articles he has written about the Sugarman/UniCredit affair here and here.

It comes to somthing when ordinary people have to uphold the laws because their government refuse to. But that is where we are, not just in Ireland but in all of our nations.

It remains to be seen what measures the banks and their friends in government will be willing to take to close off from the people from any hope of legal and peaceful redress.

I sincerely hope Mr Smith does file suit against Unicredit, Anglo and the others. I hope people are able to support him. Perhaps we, in other countries, can hope to do the same. Most fervently I hope the government in Ireland and the Trioka in Bruselles do not close down this hope of redress.

49 thoughts on “When Irish people do what their government won’t”

    1. Wishing you the best Jonathan. The people are speaking through you, you are the conduit… so long may your voice remain strong.

  1. thanks again Golem for continuing the good work by pointing out how the law means diddly squat to the corporations who are to big to jail. They do have the politicians and thus the legal system in their pockets because of debt that cannot be forgiven. They are the new dragons that plague us and will continue to do so more and more until some one is able to get rid of them. i wish Mr. Smith and Mr. Sugarman all the best. it will be a new dawn when fractional reserve banking is verboten…to get there a real jubilee is required and all debt forgiven.

  2. Love your blog and thank you for the time and effort you put in to give some true perspective to the madness that masquerades as economics these days, Keep up the good work, it’ll all be worth it in the end!

  3. What a World this would be without those who dare persist, & who bear the consequence of fighting for truth & justice in the huge face of the foul breathed, greed bloated, immoral Goliath’s. It’a a very fine novelty these days – Speaking truth to power.

    I salute you.

  4. The Dork of Cork.

    The “Irish” M1 money supply (cash and electronic cash in checking accounts) is rising by a considerable amount for some reason.
    Any explanations for this……

    Meanwhile Irish electricity output is falling to a new low for recent years.
    http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=MSM01
    Apply both gross & net electricity output
    Now apply the bars and curves graph extra to watch the major structural change in the “Irish” physical system.

    I am tempted to speculate …..when the Irish have money in their pockets they leave their homes (turn the domestic appliances which own them off for a period) & drink in public houses.

    The manipulation of money means a person which such ultimate control has ultimate POWER.

    Cromwells Parliamentarian memes was a sick banking joke to involve the masses and give the illusion of freedom.
    This has now been proven without a shadow of a doubt.

    Belloc was right ….people can’t rely on such illusions – there never was a true separation of powers.

    These islands need a true Fiat King , everything else is just Bollox.

  5. Good luck to Michael Smith and Jonathan Sugarman, It is a David & Goliath battle , but must be fought,just to preserve our self respect as citizens. The politicians have been as usual, outmanoeuverd by the financial cartel. But then again our politicians have disgraced themselves a long time ago in the eyes of the people.

  6. As you state, these crimes have been comitted in most countries. But how is one to make a case? I don’t know all letters of the law, and I don’t know much of accounting control fraud. So where does one start?

  7. Good for Michael Smith. If it works in Ireland like it does in UK these provate prosecutions usually founder as when there are serious allegations the state usually takes over the prosecution – and then drops it. My guess that in ireland – which after all is the most corrupt country in Western Europe, even more so than Italy – this will amount to nothing. Better to keep naming an shaming from the sidelines. Most of those who have their hands in the till live in Ballsbridge and Vico Road Killiney. They have accounts in the Caymans and Isle of Man and thier accountants and lawyers routinely ignore their obligations under the anti-money launderiing legislation and never report suspicious transactions (as required). The only way to get them is to picket them at their homes, place of work and recreation. For the latter try Powerscout and royal yacht club in Dun Laoghaire. (a decent fire might help; to keep the picket line warm of course…) if real pressure is applied at personal level there will be results otherwise don’t hold your breath.

  8. Great stuff and worthy case. I’ve been wondering for a long time how they can take any of us to court while this goes on. If there is not law for all one wonders how there can be any at all. There should be a public interest defence for stunters prepared to commit a minor crime of exposing this mess through ‘criminal damage’.

    Beyond the criminality obvious to most of us, I sense modularity (lack of) as a problem. There are many suggestions on how this might be introduced into the TBTF banks, leaving parts small enough to fail and presumably be prosecuted – Haldane at the BoE made the cover of Nature suggesting financial ecology – http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2ca09d82-23f4-11e0-bef0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2cBcVAquk

    We could also find ways to modularise the global economy with international efforts to go green in projects aimed at soaking up unemployment. TBTF, TBTP and worse in my view TBTLSP – too big to let sense prevail. We could try out some very radical solutions if we got modularity right – and it’s hardly the case that everyone plays by the same rules now!

  9. The Village article is being discussed here, on politicalworld.org. I don’t think it is a question of either pursue legal routes, or pressure from the sidelines or the gates of yacht clubs – all legitimate avenues should be pursued.

    http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?14657-Village-magazine-challenges-DPP-prosecute-UniCredit-John-Bowe-Michael-Fingleton-Michael-Lowry-TD

    To put the criminality that took/takes place in Ireland in global perspective, this clip of Jeffrey Sachs talking about criminality in the corporate world is revealing.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV_leG48PLE

    In the meantime, full credit to Michael Smith and Jonathan Sugarman for taking this on.

    1. Yeah, yet another massive piece of cotton wool pulled over the eyes of the populace. Western man’s law always ate dead dogs bollocks. Not only curtailing the multibillion (trillion perhaps) dollar hemp industry that has been sacrificed to enable other, less efficient industries to thrive, I can personally say smoking as a youth was where I began to satisfy a lot of questions that I had. Becoming a spectator for a moment, taking an alternate view on the Australian (American) Dream – house, double garage, two cars, boat, water skiing on Saturday. Something was amiss in these small moments of clarity… why was everyone trying for this ideal…? Sure, it was easy, but isnt there something else…? As a result, I avoided debt. Dealt in cash. It wasn’t until over a decade later, living in Ireland and watching friends squirm in negative equity, that I discovered the darker mechanics of debt – with the help of blogs such as these, in particular, GolemXIVblog. It may have been sheer luck or just a hunch, but I discovered the real fortune of staying away from debt in my own life. The fortune in not becoming another debt sink hole, enslaving the population. And it was these little moments of clarity, deep inside the psyche while giving it the big Bob Marley that I first questioned. In a harmonious society, there should be many people like me to balance those with a death pledge. There should be plenty of balance – a diversity of lifestyles. Time for everyone to work, think, and give. A entire system geared for debt via flip-that-house…ahh, we know this recipe. The recipe for control. Unfortunately, reality TV and iphone applications fool the populace into believing we live The Good Life.

      Have a toke, discover debt slavery.

  10. To share a thought on the possibility for a fundamental change in everything and my lack of optimism in this regard I would like to share an analogy and would welcome comments to dispel my pessimism. It is simply this…….that the property owning middle classes are akin to the Jews that were made to do a lot of the dirty work in nazi concentration camps and for all those well educated niggling sub conscious voices telling them the truth, a more immediate perceived reality ensures that they continue to play the game.
    Any thoughts on how any non violent, ‘democratic’, change can result if this analogy is accurate?

    1. Hi JayD

      I am only here because I got screwed bigtime not long after 2008, if I hadn’t I would probably be the same as most people, expecting the bust to end & the boom to begin again. It’s hardly surprising due to the propaganda spewed out by the MSM. Perhaps I would have an uneasy feeling due to the the increase in the states repressive measures, their treatment of whistleblowers & the apparent one law for the rich & one for the poor, but I would probably still believe that it could change to a certain extent through Democracy with the election of a more progressive party. I largely ignored politics but considered right-wingers & bankers as simply a bunch of bastards. I tried to get on with my life vaguely thinking that TPTB were largely looking out for mine & their constituents interests. Maybe change will only come when a much larger proportion of populations have burnt skin in the game, but looking at the PIIGS countries it makes me wonder whether that would be the case.

      Your analogy reminded me of Polanski’s film ” The Pianist ” which told the story of one Jewish middle class family in Nazi Germany. The repression they suffered was a gradual process which eventually, for most of the family led to their extermination. It seems as though they clutched at ever shrinking straws right till the end, which due to the fact that they were largely powerless, might have been their only option. Even towards the end when rumours began to circulate of their fate these were largely pushed to one side largely i think ( as is often the case now) these warnings came from those who would be considered radicals & firebrands. The fact is that ” The final Solution ” would have been unthinkable to most of these people.

      We can perhaps hope that the current bunch of robber barons will fuck it up for themselves as did Nazi Germany, but of course that was at a huge cost. The screw is definitely slowly being turned & like the Nazi’s who considered re-settling the Jews as a first option, who knows what options might eventually be considered by people like the Koch brothers in order to deal with the problem of those they would consider as useless feeders who have become surplus to requirements.

      The MSM have now been added to my bunch of bastards list – I expect the others to act like pigs with an empty trough, but these people for the most part have completely sold out & broken the bond of trust that they ( I think ) had with the people. As an example; during the start of the now escalating Fukishima crisis a certain nuclear expert from the think tank Chatham house was seen all over the UK TV channels spouting off a ” Nothing to see here message “, Monbiot from the Guardian took the same line, from as it happens his old school teacher.

      http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/06/20/what-s-the-nuclear-energy-for-george/

      Goebbels no doubt would be full of admiration, it’s hardly any wonder people are misinformed.

      The outlook does look gloomy but maybe a tipping point is on the horizon, there is lots of talk out there in regard to a possible stock market crash or perhaps something else will start an avalanche that might bring about change. I suppose as always the problem is at what cost.

      This is worth a watch in order to calculate how far we are down the road to Tyranny:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jk2-ZXAWkfg

  11. Lest we forget – the streets were red with the enemies!
    Lest we forget – the lessons learned in our memories!
    Lest we forget – that you can never keep a people down
    at ground level, they’ll reform, rebound!
    Lest we forget – if you contested your territory!
    Lest we forget – then you were sent to the cemetery!
    Lest we forget – that you can never keep a people down
    at ground level, they’ll reform, reload, rebound!

    http://youtu.be/JcMvdqbXREg

  12. ArtSmith

    There are certainly some very worrying practices going on. The Snowden and Assange affairs compare quite nicely with the Irish Whistleblowing story. The police will pursue and detain with the full force of the law, people who reveal the illegitimate inner workings of the state. (They will also resort to heavy handed tactics to suppress peaceful protest too!).

    This is the same police force that also turns a complete blind eye to large scale fraud in the financial sector.

    There can only be one clear explanation here: The police are clearly operating under high level political influence.

    As for whether this will result in the closure of the Press & the Internet or other Draconian measures remains to be seen. However, the current strategy of population control is to purchase our compliance and complicity, whilst also distracting / deflecting attention away from the real issues. As long as we have iThis and iThat, and plenty of trashy but voyeuristic TV to watch, the nation will happily slip into a soma coma:

    https://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2011/02/guest-post-by-hawkeye-sell-freedom-buy-control/

  13. Side note, Troika have charged Ireland €224 in fees http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/revealed-how-troika-got-220m-fees-from-taxpayer-29518936.html it’s hilarious, you wonder do the Costra Nostra charge administrative fees too?

    Article is guilty of that wonderful indulgence of giving four paragraphs over to a Fianna Fáil (political party that got us into this mess) financial spokesman (it’s always a man), I wasn’t around for the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, but can anyone confirm if the Irish Independent interviewed surviving members of the NSDAP for comment?*

    *With apologies to Godwin.

  14. To be sure, to be sure.” [Irish expression ]
    Pity those who pity the multitude of zombies who have it coming to them because they never walked their talk. [ Have mercy on me a sinner.]
    The word sin is derived from an archery term meaning MISSING THE MARK.
    Pity those who know when to call it cancer, if an individual cell chooses to go its own rapacious way, but do not know what to call it when a group of these same enforcers impose their rot on all the rest.
    Why not call it ” the horror of our British situation ” .
    I know it will have its way by killing all of us for sure, if we continue to do nothing about it.
    Our children and grandchildren are included.
    These evil agenturs behind those steering this boat are accurate. I grant them that.
    Perfidious Albion steering the Deep State.
    There is no such thing as an independent or lawful Britain anyway. It is occupied.
    And America the Great is ruled by a nest of a sick pathocracy and evil controlled agreements sliming most of their elected officials and political prostitutes, who always have their way; and whose obedience to dark deeds is not concealed, nor hidden in plain sight. A Cheney is an authoritarian monster still ; But what do you call Barak ?
    Obedient ?
    ” I will use it to brake your economy, your haughtiness, your pride. And to fill your
    concentration camps.” [ Isaiah. ]
    Britain has been and is the home of the disguised and of the worst. Where the five thousand year old Luciferian conspiracy for world government is steered from and where it was brought to a head during its ” Hey Days of Empire ” by the heirs of the same Khazars who married into its bankrupt aristocracies eons before. Here they burned and on that land they formed their central organisation called The City and later Their Crown built on another. It took five hundred years to actualise itself and today its wish is yours and Amerika’s command.
    Nation wrecking is its specialty. Perfidious Albion indeed, enamoured of its own vanity has set the middle east in flames. Tomorrow fully. The fuse and the keg.
    ” You can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of reality “.
    [ Ayn Rand]
    Yesterday George Washington was clear in his noble attempt to give the American people a Constitution [ and a finger to the Crown ] but was reported to imply that the Republic would not last for long. ” If you can keep it ” he said. He knew the power.
    Today 226 years after, his warning is a fait a’complis; and his other last warning went the way of the Dodo too. Unjust wars have hunted it to extinction. He knew their power indeed. Heard their views while playing rummy at their Lodges and smelled death behind their eyes.
    Today…..” the practical arm of the force which is neither Communism nor Capitalism but the International Banks and the few families that own them ” has imposed its slavery there ” America has no functioning democracy ” [ Jimmy Carter. ] and a world terror threat every where else that countless medicated morons fearfully obey.
    They hardly take a step without permission and slurp on each other their culture of fear believing it to be democracy USA.
    In Britain it is worse. Many moons ago Google”s Street View collected all WIFI data and transferred it to GCHQ. [What?…didn’t you know?] They call it parliamentary democracy and the trash cans read the smart phones of the MP’s and of everybody else. It is an open air prison. We are like the people of Rome under Augustus and we obviously do not mind. But why worry ?
    ” They can let you out of jail now,because they put the jail inside your mind.”[Starhawk]
    Pity those who pity indeed. Who watch their smart phones watching them.
    Who watch the rotting carcass of this once free and great nation and do nothing.
    Who pay no heed to the asteroid impacts that are already striking somewhere else like a warning or a warm up before the burning rains’ arrival once the taps are fully on.
    You and I are responsible for this and have to answer for the other.
    ” It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold The evil or the blessing will reach you all ” . [Thomas pain , The Crisis , 1776. ]

  15. harold wilson's pipe

    Apropos of nothing in particular…

    A new series started today on BBC Radio 4 in the “comedy” slot at 6:30pm.

    Led by Rory Bremner, with many other contributors.

    Title: Bremner’s One-Question Quiz

    Episode 2 of 6 is called “Where did all the money go?”

    This week’s contributors include a fake Angela Merkel and the real Max Keiser.

    I’ll say that again: Max Keiser. On the BBC. In a *good* way. And Gillian Tett of the FT too.

    Including this marvellous one-liner (amongst loads of other marvellous stuff)

    “Every time you say money isn’t real, a banker dies”

    Ed Miliband should listen.

    Every reader here should listen.

    Thank you if you listen.

    Repeated tomorrow on BBC Radio 4 at 12:30 BST (half past midday in old money).

    On the iPlayer in due course.

    Start at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038jkx6

    Remember, money isn’t real.

  16. I don’t know how we mobilise against this. They are now feeding us the same lies we got on Afghanistan and Iraq using the same liars on Syria.

  17. steviefinn
    Interesting article. But I’m struggling to find any evidence on the net that they are printing debt free money. I would have thought I would have found something to back that up. Most articles on the ‘unconventional policies’ put the recovery down to taxing big companies and financial transactions. And they seem to be still be issuing government bonds, which doesn’t make sense. Why would they bother?

    1. averagejoe

      Points taken – That’s why I added the question mark, I was hoping for clarification after looking on the web myself for something that is perhaps too good to be true.

      1. Something that I have pondered on before, is how a system of debt free money could be introduced. Because any politician seeking to publically advocate it would find himself up against the entire banking aristocracy. That suggests that the only way it could be implemented is in the midst of financial and economic chaos, and/or through a process of deception, where a strong leader (for the people) creates the legislation, which sound sensible/pragmatic to the majority of members of parliament and the masses, but within the detail, shift the power to create money away from banks. I don’t think we have reached the right stage yet, nor is the right leader present.

  18. The Dork of Cork.

    I am not a fan of the euro expansion expressed chiefly through pointless road development (private credit was provided for cars and the fiscal agents goal was merely to spend money on carrying these products of credit) but the story from Portugal resonates with the Irish experience of near empty main (toll) roads and busier secondary roads (burning more fuel)

    This is a perfect expression of the rentier economy eating itself alive as resource allocation is dictated by the goals of rentiers and not rational & national resource allocation.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoEd8yOFfLA

  19. The Dork of Cork.

    The roads exist without much traffic………..why charge a rent on something which is little used ? how does this help rational resource allocation ?
    In fact it works against it…………

    The problem resides in the stock (total number) of cars created by bank credit hyperinflation and not the roads so much although there is now a huge inertia in the landscape which can be best solved by running down these road assets and transferring the remaining capital expenditure elsewhere.

    The banks are preventing the stock of cars to flow by creating credit to buy more cars whenever a small physical surplus presents itself.
    So what they are doing is destroying capital so as to create artificial scarcity so as to drive up rents…….this is the very basis of the non national euro system in particular.

    Its a giant entropy engine.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M8_motorway_(Ireland)#Watergrasshill_Bypass

    The above road is very underused as a result of the Fermoy toll while the below older road remains busy…………

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R639_road

    If so what was the point of the capital expenditure ? to create rents or add value ?
    It looks like its purpose was to create new rents.

  20. How about the criminal charges which Mr. David Malone or Mr. Robin Smith must face first? And the rest.

    To keep blaming banks, when you are already fully complicit in robbing our children, is what ancient texts used to call Pharisaic. What is known as a ‘high priest’. Wanting to be “seen” to be wise and respected.

    As are all others trying to save the planet, yet in the background secretly collecting an unearned windfall, the legitimate earnings of others, hoping no one will notice.

    “Do as I say, not as I do!”

    See here for the psychology of this unconscious action:

    MeltFund Psychology
    http://www.meltfund.com/2013/08/meltfund-psychology.html

    By all means call if you disagree. try hard not to beg the question, use ad hominem, ask for infinite evidence, set up a straw man, or worst of all move into a deeper level of denial about it.

    Yours,
    Robin Smith.
    07786 078836
    [email protected]

  21. Must watch video interview of former career NSA officer Russell Tice, in this excellent piece by Yves Smith.

    Tice blew the whistle in 2005 when he realised the near universality of (illegal) NSA surveillance of all communications, including (then) Senator Obama, Supreme Court justices, high ranking military and politicians.

    “….they’ve gone after Snowden because he has the proof….” (whereas Tice explains he could only talk about what he saw)

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/gaius-publius-deep-state-is-the-upper-echelon-of-the-intelligence-community-running-america.html

    Americans, you cannot be thinking you live in a ‘free’ society with any meaningful democracy any longer. You may make some guesses, but you really have no idea who is really running the US.

    I doubt matters are much better in Europe, albeit the ‘control’ may not be as blatant or direct. Control is done indirectly & very effectively by removing the debate narratives from public discourse of the options not desired by the elites. The ‘TINA’ doctrine, with which mainstream media are only too willing to oblige.

    We’ve already seen what the bankers & financial sector did with the IT revolution of the last 2 or 3 decades, with what we now realise was absolutely zero democratic oversight. (That is to say, ordinary citizens’ interests counted for exactly nothing, nada.)

    Now we know what the military-industrial-spying complex has also done with zero democratic oversight.

    All whilst being blatantly lied to, repeatedly, by political leadership & other public servants, by their silence, if not outright complicity.

    Sorry Golem, but your notion of running for election as an MEP as some counter to all this is laughable. You have the skills already – program making – to make the most powerful contribution against all this. If you don’t want to do any more than you have/are (for whatever reason), fine, no problem, that’s your right, and deserving our appreciation. But let’s not kid ourselves that an also-ran career in politics, within the present system, can make a gnat’s cock of a difference.

  22. richard in norway

    I I know this ain’t the place for it but I’m starting to wonder about all these oil wars and sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. We know that in the early 70s the states wanted a high oil price to support the value of their currency, we could assume that there is a chance that the states is deliberately restricting supply again for the same reason but there is another possible motive, that is the huge amount of debt taken on by the oil fracking companies in the states, which would go bad very quickly if the oil price was to drop even moderately

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