I see Jeff Skilling of Enron has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for his part in the fraud that bankrupted the company. It’s always interesting to see how real democracies enforce their laws.
Skilling was refused bail, was fitted with an electronic tag and will go to jail in about 90 days – for what is, effectively, a life sentence. Former employees were allowed to address the court (and Skilling) about the impact of his crimes. Here’s how one such employee expressed herself.
“Mr. Skilling has proven to be a liar, a thief and a drunk, flaunting an attitude above the law. He has betrayed everyone who has trusted him. Shame on me for believing the management of Enron,”
Ken Lay was also due for sentencing with Skilling but he died in the meantime and his case was dropped. It can be seen from the Enron trials that the Americans know what white collar crime is and how to deal with the disease.
In Ireland, it is likely that Skilling would have been awarded entrepreneur of the year and poor old ‘Kenny boy’ would probably have been granted a state funeral with a tearful oration by our Prime Minister.
Indeed, I think Ireland is missing out on a golden opportunity here. The country is obviously a justice free zone for thieving bankers, solicitors, politicians and all kinds of other dodgy ‘white collar’ characters (The law is, of course, fully enforced on wayward peasants).
The Government should officially declare the country a refuge for the world’s white collar criminals. They would, of course, have to comply with the old Irish tradition of ‘donating’ a percentage of their ill gotten gains to ‘certain parties’.
In return, they would be guanteed immunity and in the unlikely event of actually getting caught doing something dodgy, they would simply be referred to one of the never ending tribunals.
There they could happily live out the rest of their lives relating fantasy tales to entertain all those wayward peasants who actually do time for their crimes.
we are one of the most regulated states on this planet the writer of the above piece is clearly from a different one
Crewser, posing as other people does not work either. IP addresses can tell alot.
crewser gone to cork for 3 days OLAF here do not fully understand reference to internet protocol crewser did expect some more stuff to appear after getting red card
a bit unfair i thought some cannot stand criticism
My feelings about this blatant censorship can be read on the thread Incompetence and caranage
Lol @ Dalkey. ‘Blatant’ censorship would involve me deleting the comments of Crewser and yourself, not asking for civil and polite comments.
The possibility of setting up an anti-public inquiry blog is always open to you, if you feel that you cannot express yourself fully in comments on this blog.
you are not being so genuine here gavin as you were deleting the comments of the crewser which you found not to your liking on tuesday night last
if you only want a reaction from people who are friendly to your point of view send emails to friends of same view rather that publishing on net
you seem to be wanting it two ways always
Just discoved site after telling a mate he should set up ‘lastangryman.ie’ – but you’ve beaten him to it. More rants please!
There appears to be a desire on the part of the promoters of this Website to exclude contributions from individuals who hold views which differ fundamentally from theirs (the vast majority of the Irish people would fall into this category I believe)
The word “trolling” has been used and I myself have been accused of engaging in it by Gavin. Given the headline content of this site over the last few months I believe Gavin’s position would be somewhat akin to Hitler questioning the morality of torture.
This Website puts up a headline every other week which I personally find disgusting and repulsive. It is much more sinister than a couple of geeks having a bit of fun with the Internet.
There is a deliberate attempt to amplify and distort issues of the day and put a particular spin on them which the promoters of the site hope will turn public opinion in a particular direction.
This is very similar to Geraldine Kennedy’s attempt to overthow Bertie Ahern by bringing into the public domain matters which were private to the Planning Tribunal. A very serious offence was committed by two people in this case neither of whom was Bertie Ahern. Yet the promoters of this Website have continued to paint our democratically elected Taoiseach and Government as corrupt.
That is bad enough but to whinge and whine in the way they are doing because they are rightly challenged about the site’s headline content is quite unbelievable.
It is a case of wanting to dish out abuse as they like but not being prepared to accept any in return.
This type of cowardly sniping which is a feature of many elements of the Irish media reflects very badly on those promoting it and does not fool the majority of decent Irish people who will give their adjudication on it at Election time.
Sigh. Godwin’s law already.
I believe that in anything that claims to be a democracy, citizens are perfectly entitled to call the government of the day anything they wish. A government who attempts to stop these opinions being expressed is no longer democratic.
Second, I don’t equate governmental criticism with ad hominem attack.
Third, how does writing critical content on the web amount to cowardly sniping?
Fourth, if you don’t like the headlines, look elsewhere.
And you are right, I will let the Irish people decide on who is right or wrong, by leaving these comments to be read by them.
Fifth, there is a deliberate attempt to stop trolling and offensive comments. There’s no problem being critical, as long as you back it up with rational argument.
Comment moderation is now in operation.
OUR GOVERNMENT REPS ACT AS THOUGH THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW, WHICH IS PROBABLY TRUE GIVEN THAT THEY CAN CHANGE LAWS TO SUIT THEMSELVES AND MAKE IT HARDER FOR THEIR BRIBES TO BE UNCOVERED. BRIBES, GIFTS OR LOANS WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT WENT ON YEARS AGO AND IS PROBABLY STILL GOING ON TODAY. SOON THE MEDIA DOGS WONT EVEN BE ABLE TO REPORT ON IT AS GUESS WHAT? ITS GONNA BE AGAINST THE LAW. FG AND FF AND MOST OF THE GOVERNMENT ARE A PART OF THE SAME CREW. THE UNDER THE THUMB OF THE DEVELOPERS CREW. FOR ALL WE KNOW THE MAJOR DEVELOPERS IN THIS COUNTRY MIGHT HAVE GIVEN POLITICAL PARTIES MONEY FOR FAVOURS THAT WE DONT KNOW ABOUT. IF THATS THE CASE OUR POLITIANS ARE PUBLICLY WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE BUT SECRETLY THEIR TOLD WHAT TO DO BY THE DEVELOPERS. IT ALL ADDS UP WHEN YOU SEE THE REPORTS OF SHADY RE-ZONING AND DODGY BUILDING STANDARDS.
Have no fear Gavin, rational argument will be the order of the day.
I have just had an opportunity to take a look at Anthony’s latest dissertation. Utterly unpatriotic is the immediate feeling I have. But then that would be par for the course for this headline creator. Maybe Gavin may exercise a moderating influence over the headline pieces in the future also.
The unfortunate thing is that while Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are no longer on the scene, as it were, the man they worked so hard to support and put in office(George Bush) still is and even Anthony would have to concede that he has brought the World closer to ruin that anyone in history.
Despite the disparaging and ridiculously sad comments by others above, keep up the good work. I love reading about how corruption is still as vibrant and active (if not more so) as it was when I moved on twenty years ago (to a slightly less corrupt cabal)
To anyone with eyes, ears and even the smallest of brains politics and big business in Ireland is rotten to the core and has been for many many years.
Dropping by, trying to get the political flavor of Ireland for a Spring visit. (2nd time)
Wow. What can I say. Lay and Skilling. We have a country where Justice is Green $$. “Right to Lifers” support the death penalty, but only the poor are executed.
If we are going to be neanderthals when it comes to public policy, I’d love to see the death penalty extended to white collar crimals.
Sorry for the rant, but I guess I am saying Yeah, when public outcry(=votes) becomes large enough we put the bums on trial. But we have a two tiered justice system. Look who is on death row and your hearth breaks for the injustice.
The only cheerful thought I’ve have over the last several years as religious dominionist fundamentalist take us back to pre Magna Carta times is perhaps then we could simply dig Ken Lay up and put him on trial.
the country is not half settled. the end is nigh.
Great read,havn’t read in quite a while too busy at work.
I see crewser is still at it, talking shite that is,I must go through the archives
to see what he said,I’ll just have to do a search for Geraldine Kennedy that should
bring up his names as she must be the devils bitch.
Having followed PI for some time, I have consistently admired the manner in which the authors backed up their postings/opinions with fact. Links to actual transcipts of various hearings, etc. have been posted on the site so folks can in fact formulate thier own opinions on a variety of issues.
I truly believe Anthony does a great service to his country bringing issues to the table for civilized discussion and debate. “Haughey’s Private Navy,” [June 06] is just one example of an episode the Irish people should have been advised took place, that post wasn’t about politics, it was fact. Furthermore, just a glance
at comments on all the various issues makes it quite clear
topics are always open to discussion … regardless of opinion.
Keep up the good work.