Minister vows action on white collar crime

LEGISLATION INTRODUCED in the Dáil will “put an end to any hint of a culture that suggests the white collar criminal is a protected species”, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has pledged.

The Minister insisted “there will be no impunity for those who engage in white collar crime” and he promised “if more is needed more will be done”.

The Criminal Justice 2011 Bill, published last week and expected to be passed before the summer recess, focuses on “specified serious and complex offences attracting a penalty of at least five years’ imprisonment”. It includes offences in banking and finance, company law, money-laundering, fraud, corruption, competition, consumer protection and cybercrime.

One of the significant provisions includes allowing inference to be drawn from an accused’s refusal to answer certain questions, where they have received legal advice. The Bill also allows for the suspension of questioning of detainees between midnight and 8am unless for exceptional reasons.

The Bill also contains powers to compel witnesses to provide information.

Mr Shatter said “we must find ways to ensure that no matter how complex the crime, no matter how important, wealthy or influential the wrongdoer may be, he or she must be brought before the courts”.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara Calleary said the legislation strengthens the armoury of the State. But he warned that “we must be realistic”, recalling recent remarks by High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Kelly about the apparent failures to investigate “thoroughly yet efficiently and expeditiously possible criminal wrongdoing in the commercial corporate sectors, does nothing to instil confidence in the criminal justice system”.

He said it was unprecedented for a “senior law officer of the State to slap across the head rather than the hand a regulatory investigator of this State”. The Mayo TD said that those investigating such crimes needed to be challenged to use the powers they already have at their disposal more efficiently.

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Jonathon O’Brien highlighted legal advice that “we have the weapons for prosecution but we are choosing not to use them, and the Director of Public Prosecutions is reluctant to engage in a general programme that would grant full or partial immunity to informants who expose wrongdoing at banks and financial institutions”.

Catherine Murphy (Ind, Kildare North) also highlighted further legal advice that “if lessons are to be learned from the 2008 crash” they should not be to introduce new laws, new offences specifically aimed at bankers or to overhaul the financial regulatory system. The existing statute books contained “more than enough well drafted provisions with which to punish wrongdoers”.

The Central Bank and Financial Services Authority Act 2003 should be “dusted off” and they should be used to regulate the system.

Ms Murphy said, however, little evidence exists that this has been done, but that it must be done.