Anglo is Ireland’s Enron and the law must catch up with the culprits

DESPITE attempts to sanitise and whitewash the full horrors of Anglo Irish Bank in the annual report, the truth is being exposed. This is the worst financial scandal in the history of our State. It is now time to compare and contrast this sorry saga with the worst financial scandal in the USA — Enron Corporation.

Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. Its shares dropped from $90 to less than 50 cents. It resulted in the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, at the time one of the five largest accounting firms in the world. The background to the collapse was the deregulation of the electricity and energy markets in the 1990s. This relaxation allowed Enron to keep losses and debts off the balance sheet.

The extent of the financial deception created an illusion of billions of profit while the company was actually lossmaking. The three main culprits were Jeffrey Skilling, president and chief operating officer; Andrew Fastow, chief financial officer, and Kenneth Lay, chairman and CEO.