White collar crime… do we really care?

In an interview with the Irish Independent in October 2006, Sean Fitzpatrick was asked ‘what drives you nuts?’ He replied: “The Hollywood set, people who aren’t real, bureaucracy, falseness.”

In the interview, Fitzpatrick was also questioned as to what he would do if he had a spare million euro. The former chairman of Anglo-Irish Bank replied “I’d do something for the homeless; provide day-time facilities.”

Whatever his intentions were, Fitzpatrick was to embezzle €84 million (or €87 million, depending on what figures you believe) in secret loans over a period of eight years. His actions brought the Irish financial system to its knees this year, forcing the government to nationalise Anglo-Irish Bank and introduce a plethora of ‘cost-cutting measures’.

Two men were arrested last week after stealing €7.6 million from Bank of Ireland on College Green. This robbery forced widespread criticism of security operations in banks, but has yet to impact on most people’s lives (and probably never will).

The money pilfered by Fitzpatrick exceeds the money stolen by the two robbers on College Green by over 11 times. Yet, Fitzpatrick will probably never face prosecution or imprisonment, while the two burglars have already been put through the court system, refused bail, and remanded in custody.

Compare Fitzpatrick’s lack of treatment in the Irish legal system to the treatment of Enron executives in the US, who went on trial in 2006. Both the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Enron were tried for bank fraud, money laundering and making false statements to banks and auditors.

The former CEO of Enron was given 24 years in prison and was ordered to pay $26 million to the Enron pension fund. One could argue that Fitzpatrick’s crime is more damaging than the Enron scandal ever was, and, yet, there are no sanctions for his theft.

How is it that our system of justice has lost all sense of proportion? It is common enough that Irish people feel ‘out of touch’ with the political system, but is there really a need for the judicial system to follow the policy-makers’ lead by burying any public confidence in them? Why does 11 times the crime not equal 11 times the time?

At the same time, however, the public have expressed widespread hatred of the hypocritical Fitzpatrick, with USA Today running with a headline of ‘Irish stand united in hatred of banker Sean Fitzpatrick’ last January.

Resentment of fat-cat bankers is at an all-time high, with some people even physically attacking workers in their local banks, according to a report in the Irish Examiner last week.

Yet, the public outcry emerging as a result of the robbery on College Green is barely audible. While Fitzpatrick’s crime hugely outweighs the Bank of Ireland robbery, there has been little public commentary on the lesser robbery. It seems people have accepted that robbing €7.6 million is ok.

Let us not forget that, although dwarfed by the Anglo-Irish robbery, €7.6 million is still an awful lot of money. To put it in perspective, €7.6 million could go a long way to saving the lives of thousands of teenage girls through provision of the cervical cancer vaccine.

Sean Fitzpatrick never invested in his beloved homeless shelters. Instead he invested in, according to the Sunday Tribune, “property funds… investment property, film finance and pension investments.”

After his statement of dislike for the “Hollywood set” and “people who aren’t real,” it’s time for the powers that be, and us, to be ‘real’ and realise that Fitzpatrick is no better than the ‘common thieves’ of College Green, and deserves to be proportionately punished, as the blue-collar criminal would be.