By Andras Gergely
DUBLIN, Feb 14 (Reuters) - An Irish cabinet minister called on Saturday for rigorous legal sanctions against anyone who is found guilty of any crime in bank scandals which overshadowed this week's state bailout of the two top lenders.
Defence Minister Willie O'Dea said Ireland's director of corporate enforcement could seek the assistance of police officers and a 'fraud squad' as part of his investigation.
'The guards (police) already have been called in in effect,' O'Dea told public radio RTE. 'The procedure is thorough, it is methodical and it can have the most serious consequences for those who are found to have misbehaved.'
'And if those people, some of whom have damaged the international reputation of this country and imperilled the livelihood of every man, woman and child in this country, if they are found to be in breach of the law then I hope they'll suffer the full rigours the law provides for,' O'Dea said.
He did not point to any institution or individual.
Ireland's financial regulator said on Friday it had found certain transactions between bancassurer Irish Life & Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank completely unacceptable and sent investigators to their offices with a brief to complete their work 'with extreme urgency'.
Irish Life & Permanent's chief executive, group finance director and head of group treasury, quit this week after the group revealed it had made 7.45 billion euros ($9.6 billion) in short-term deposits to Anglo Irish Bank in September.
PARLIAMENTARY HEARING
Irish Life & Permanent had said its senior directors were only acting to support Anglo Irish during a period of unprecedented crisis, when world credit markets were buckling.
It said the transactions were fully and appropriately accounted for in its books and records and in its regular reports and returns to the financial regulator.
But the regulator has been investigating whether Anglo Irish, nationalised last month after a separate directors' loan scandal, used the funds to artificially boost its financial health.
The deposit revelations at Anglo Irish eclipsed Dublin's efforts this week to restore some credibility to its banking sector and the wider economy with a 7 billion euro bailout for its top two lenders, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.
Anglo Irish Bank said on Friday that it was conducting a comprehensive review of the transactions and confirmed that it had 'sought and received deposits' from IL&P during 2008, including the last two weeks of September.
It said all transactions have been appropriately recorded in its books and records and financial statements and in its daily, weekly and monthly regulatory returns.
Separately, former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick admitted in December that he had misled investors about 84 million euros in loans from his bank. His statement helped trigger the bank's nationalisation in January.
When he resigned FitzPatrick said he had not in any way breached banking or legal regulations, but his actions had been 'unacceptable from a transparency point of view'.
The chief executive of the financial regulator has also quit over the handling of the directors' loan scandal at Anglo.
FitzPatrick has been invited to a parliamentary committee hearing next week, but it was unclear if he would attend. Some deputies say the committee should be able to force him to.
Government Chief Whip Pat Carey told RTE this could happen in the next fortnight.
'I believe that the Dail (lower chamber of parliament) would be anxious to assist that the ... committee would be empowered to carry out an investigation but the terms of reference would have to be very, very tightly framed,' said Carey.
(editing by Elizabeth Piper) Keywords: IRELAND BANKS/ (andras.gergely@reuters.com; +35315001518; Reuters Messaging: andras.gergely.reuters.com@reuters.net; Editing by Victoria Main) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
DUBLIN, Feb 14 (Reuters) - An Irish cabinet minister called on Saturday for rigorous legal sanctions against anyone who is found guilty of any crime in bank scandals which overshadowed this week's state bailout of the two top lenders.
Defence Minister Willie O'Dea said Ireland's director of corporate enforcement could seek the assistance of police officers and a 'fraud squad' as part of his investigation.
'The guards (police) already have been called in in effect,' O'Dea told public radio RTE. 'The procedure is thorough, it is methodical and it can have the most serious consequences for those who are found to have misbehaved.'
'And if those people, some of whom have damaged the international reputation of this country and imperilled the livelihood of every man, woman and child in this country, if they are found to be in breach of the law then I hope they'll suffer the full rigours the law provides for,' O'Dea said.
He did not point to any institution or individual.
Ireland's financial regulator said on Friday it had found certain transactions between bancassurer Irish Life & Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank completely unacceptable and sent investigators to their offices with a brief to complete their work 'with extreme urgency'.
Irish Life & Permanent's chief executive, group finance director and head of group treasury, quit this week after the group revealed it had made 7.45 billion euros ($9.6 billion) in short-term deposits to Anglo Irish Bank in September.
PARLIAMENTARY HEARING
Irish Life & Permanent had said its senior directors were only acting to support Anglo Irish during a period of unprecedented crisis, when world credit markets were buckling.
It said the transactions were fully and appropriately accounted for in its books and records and in its regular reports and returns to the financial regulator.
But the regulator has been investigating whether Anglo Irish, nationalised last month after a separate directors' loan scandal, used the funds to artificially boost its financial health.
The deposit revelations at Anglo Irish eclipsed Dublin's efforts this week to restore some credibility to its banking sector and the wider economy with a 7 billion euro bailout for its top two lenders, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.
Anglo Irish Bank said on Friday that it was conducting a comprehensive review of the transactions and confirmed that it had 'sought and received deposits' from IL&P during 2008, including the last two weeks of September.
It said all transactions have been appropriately recorded in its books and records and financial statements and in its daily, weekly and monthly regulatory returns.
Separately, former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick admitted in December that he had misled investors about 84 million euros in loans from his bank. His statement helped trigger the bank's nationalisation in January.
When he resigned FitzPatrick said he had not in any way breached banking or legal regulations, but his actions had been 'unacceptable from a transparency point of view'.
The chief executive of the financial regulator has also quit over the handling of the directors' loan scandal at Anglo.
FitzPatrick has been invited to a parliamentary committee hearing next week, but it was unclear if he would attend. Some deputies say the committee should be able to force him to.
Government Chief Whip Pat Carey told RTE this could happen in the next fortnight.
'I believe that the Dail (lower chamber of parliament) would be anxious to assist that the ... committee would be empowered to carry out an investigation but the terms of reference would have to be very, very tightly framed,' said Carey.
(editing by Elizabeth Piper) Keywords: IRELAND BANKS/ (andras.gergely@reuters.com; +35315001518; Reuters Messaging: andras.gergely.reuters.com@reuters.net; Editing by Victoria Main) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.