Northern Bank Heist Now Firmly in Guy Ritchie Territory
Ted Cunningham, an Irish money-lender accused of laundering funds from the Northern Bank heist, has himself named former Bank of Scotland chair Phil Flynn as being the Mr Big of the operation. If you’ve been disappointed that all the fraud, Ponzi schemes, and general financial ne’er do wells of recent weeks were far overseas, then you’ll be glad to know that Phil and Ted’s excellent adventure is right up there with the best of them.
Rewind to late 2004, when an armed gang stole £26.5m from Belfast’s Northern Bank. In consummate bungling-burglars fashion, they stole Northern Bank-branded notes, which can only be used in Ireland or Scotland, and could easily be spotted. Northern Bank changed the colour of their banknotes to make it even harder; cue a lot of note-burning and general Guy-Ritchie-movie mayhem.
£2.4m in banknotes was found in a compost bag in Cunningham’s home a month later, which he originally claimed was from the sale of a gravel pit to some Bulgarians (good effort) but then later said in a police interview that the Bulgarian thing was a front to launder the cash. And guess where the £2.4m ended up coming from? Yes, the bank raid. And as Cunningham is saying that he knew the laundered cash was from the raid, and that Phil Flynn was the head of the laundering operation, then it looks like Flynn, a former bank chair, played a major part in the heist, if not in the planning and execution then at least very soon after.
The political implications of the raid were serious, with Bertie Aherne and Northern Irish police both accusing the IRA of masterminding the operation, and the IRA denying it. Cunningham has said that he’s not had any connection with Sinn Fein or the IRA, except for a few brief meetings and some Christmas cards. So if it wasn’t the IRA, then who was it? The trial continues, pass the popcorn.
But these wide boys aren’t the only launderettes today – there’s also Terry Freeman, head of GFX Capital, a company that isn’t shredding any stereotypes about its native Essex any time soon. He controlled a currency trading fund worth £40m; it’s stopped trading, and people haven’t been able to access their funds recently. Sounds awfully like Ponzi to me! Now he’s been arrested, and released on bail, surprising given his apparent propensity to travel abroad and the death threats recently made against him. Good luck out there Tezza!
Meanwhile, the Madoff case, the Ponzi to end all Ponzis, continues to splutter onwards towards indictment and trial at a snail’s pace, while depressing fallout ebbs around the globe. It’s enough to make you put your cash in a 1% saving account and run off to a commune.
Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Hot Money | February 13, 2009 1:20PM |