ROTTEN Bankers

Minister for Enterprise Batt O'Keeffe mentioned in passing yesterday that 15 cases of suspected fraud within Irish banking circles are being investigated. Read here. The Director of Corporate Enforcement Paul Appleby has referred the files to Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation. The revelation came after Fine Gael's Michael Noonan criticised the slow pace of the investigations into Ireland's financial meltdown. He might have a point. Bernie Madoff is settling into his 150 year sentence. He is one of about 50 Wall Street bankers in the clink where justice and the criminal justice system appears to be a lot swifter.

CORPORATE Fraud

Half of Irish businesses have been hit by 'serious' fraud , according to the Global Fraud Survey from Ernst and Young. The figure of 50 per cent is far higher than the global average of 16 per cent and the 21 per cent average in western Europe.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association recently warned that firms are being targeted during the holiday season. Holiday stand-ins and junior staff have been conned into signing firms up to unwanted online directories, it is claimed.

RENTAL Scam

IT's that time of year again when holidaymaker, tourists and student get conned with the rental. First there was a story about Irish students getting stung for a deposit on a non-existing apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Today The Examiner had a story about Irish holidaymakers being conned over an apartment on the Costa del Sol by a guy using the name Michael Haden. Read it here. The advice is to be careful and pay using a credit card, check out references and if a deal looks to good to be true...

FAKE notes

THE European Union's bank notes are still proving tough for the counterfeiters. The latest figures from European Central Bank show that 387,000 notes were withdrawn from circulation in the first half of 2010. That's down 13 per cent on last year but up compared to 265,000 in 2007. The preferred choice of the counterfeiters are the €20 and €50 notes. The €100 notes attract more scrutiny and even the genuine ones are rarely used in this country. Keep in mind that the seized notes make up a tiny proportion of the 13 billion euro notes in circulation. If you are worried check out all the security features on the ECB website.

REVENUE Phish

The Revenue Commissioners in Ireland have issued a warning about another phishing email. The bogus mail suggests a person has overpaid tax that they can reclaim. The links on the mail then ask the recipient to hand over all their personal information. The mails first started appearing in Ireland early last year following a similar scam in the United States.

SMOKING criminals

There's a billion fake or duty-evading cigarettes being smuggled into Ireland every year. At least a third of those are counterfeits, packaged to look like well-known brands and sold for half the usual retail price. A few recent events highlights how serious criminals are involved in the trade. Paul 'Wobbly Boots' Meehan last week got 21 years for importing guns and drugs into Ireland. His 'contact' was an undercover agent he met through cigarette smuggling. In the same week customs officers found five million smuggled cigarettes in a raid near the border. In a connected incident a police officer was hit by a truck as one of the smuggling gang made his escape. The incident shows that it is not just rogue business people who are in the trade - the major players are sinister criminals involved in dealing guns, drugs and murder.

RITZ acquits

Patrick Dolan was cleared of his role in the whacky bid to sell The Ritz. The elderly Irishman claimed he was a scape-goated by "rich people" who set up a scheme in which they claimed to have rights to purchase the London's Ritz Hotel for below its market price. A st£1 million deposit was paid by an interested buyer who never saw their cash again. Dolan didn't waste his share, gambling it on horses, buying a new Merc and paying off his mortgage.
Anthony Lee, an unemployed lorry driver, was convicted for his part in the fraud and is due to be sentenced later this month.