Launching 'brogue trader' book a risky business for McDowell

A "Rip-roaring tale of money and sex" is how Conor O'Clery described his and Siobhán Creaton's account of the AIB/First Maryland currency trading fraud, launched last night in Dublin.

Before he faced fraud charges himself, he quickly amended this description, admitting that the sex was confined to a fleeting reference on page 64, paragraph 2. Not surprisingly, Panic at the Bank is mostly about money, namely the $691 million (€711 million) of the AIB's that rogue trader John Rusnak lost.

But sex or no sex, the book should still attract a lot more interest than Rusnak's currency deals did.

The account of the scandal, like the scandal itself, is a translatlantic affair. As Dublin-based finance correspondent of The Irish Times, Siobhán Creaton tells the Irish end of the story. As North America editor, Conor O'Clery covers it from Maryland. But neither received any co-operation from AIB, O'Clery explained, and they had to "dig very deep" to get the story out.

The scandal introduced the general public to a new vocabulary, in which a "lone wolf" trader (or a "brogue trader" as the US press called him, ignoring the fact that he wasn't Irish) gambled millions in "deep-in-the-money" options.

But as the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell said in launching the book, readers should not forget that the people involved were human and that many of them had suffered for their failings. With a sympathetic touch for which ministers for justice are not always famous, he added: "Sometimes, things just go wrong".

As if to illustrate this, Mr McDowell told a cautionary tale about book launches, involving one of the co-authors. It was always a risk for a politician that in launching a book, he might be assumed to support the views therein. Recently, he said, with a ministerial nod towards Ms Creaton, just such a conclusion was drawn about a book he launched which contained criticisms of his Government colleague, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.

This had provoked him to write a "slightly snotty" letter to The Irish Times distancing himself from the censure of Mr McCreevy. He issued a disclaimer last night for the benefit of any "AIB spy" present: "I want to make it clear that by launching this, I am not necessarily supporting the views expressed." He went on to express the hope that "a lot of people buy this book"; although, in cautious mode to the end, he added: "I hope I'm not reported saying that in The Irish Times."