A TALE of two crooks

Here's a story of two 'professionals' who, through some terrible mistake or financial pressure, couldn't keep their hands off their clients' money. One based in Ireland has been struck off as a solicitor, while the other based in the UK got jailed. The legal eagle who bit the dust yesterday in the High Court was Seaosaimh O Daimhain, otherwise known as Joseph Devine. One of the reasons he pilfered his clients cash was to 'manage' his wife's overdraft. No less than than 79 complaints with over €500,000 were made to the Law Society. Read more here.
The other profession which has covered itself in glory are mortgage brokers- especially those dabbling in overseas property deals. This time it was Sophie Bennett whose fingers were caught in the till. Unluckily for her the Cork-native was based in the UK and she got eight months behinds bars for pilfering her clients' cash. Today's Irish Daily Mail reported that Sophie was convicted at the Old Bailey of nicking st£85,000 from two clients who had given her the money to invest.

ROCK On

Now here's a story that will definitely be picked up Hollywood (California not Wicklow). Two poor miners in Brazil find the world's biggest emerald, now known as the Bahai Emerald. It is estimated to be worth anything up to $1 billion. The huge uncut rock ends up in the United States where it is seized by police after complaints that it has been stolen. Six people or firms then put in a claim that they own it. They can't all be telling the truth, but then one per cent of $1 billion still adds up and I bet the lawyers will all get paid. Read about it here.

FORGED Art

Timing is everything and the Irish banks have even got it wrong when it comes to the controversial decision to sell off their art collection (read here). Not only is the market depressed there's a lot of jitters because a whole raft of forgeries have been discovered. Many of these were sold through leading auctioneers and dealers. A single German forger is thought to be behind the paintings sold off for st£30 million. All were done in the name of 20th century artists and were in the style of documented works whose whereabouts are not currently known, such as that by Heinrich Campendonk (pictured). Read it here in The Observer. No doubt there'll be a movie in the works fairly soon.