Related: Ireland Flips Globalists the Finger
Coincidence?
"Ireland rescues top banks" by Associated Press | February 12, 2009
DUBLIN - Ireland unveiled painstakingly negotiated plans yesterday to invest $9 billion in its two largest banks, Allied Irish and the Bank of Ireland, in hopes of easing international fears that Ireland's financial system could be headed for collapse.
After weeks of negotiations, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was forced to increase Ireland's original plan to invest just $2.5 billion in each bank after his hopes that the banks could attract matching capital from foreign investors were dashed.
Lenihan's news came against a backdrop of deepening scandal involving Ireland's number three and four banks, Anglo Irish and Irish Life & Permanent, which has fanned skepticism about Ireland's ability to police its banks and manage its national debt.
The finance minister earlier confirmed that Irish Life used a nonbanking subsidiary to deposit almost $9 billion into Anglo in September 2008, then withdraw the massive sum within days - a maneuver that allowed Anglo to conceal from its shareholders a sharp fall in real customer deposits.
Ireland was forced to nationalize Anglo last month following revelations that its former chairman kept $112 million of his own loans off Anglo books.
But Lenihan stressed that regulators had encountered no sign of shady cash transfers or debt concealments at Ireland's dominant two banks. The deal, which requires approval from both banks' shareholders, will give the government a 25 percent stake in both banks.
They've got every government hooked into their tax-payer funded bailouts, don't they?
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