Holy jaysusin’ begorrah. I knew that the Irish were in difficulty¹, but this is a roundabout way of getting funds.

A company owned by one of Ireland’s richest businessmen has been fined a record 3.25m euro by the Republic of Ireland’s financial watchdog.
…
In a statement, Sean Quinn said the company “had made loans to a related company which amounted to €288m in May 2008 when the accounts were finalised.

“These loans breached insurance regulations and as a result of this the Financial Regulator has sanctioned Quinn Insurance and myself. I accept complete responsibility for this breach of regulation.

“While I accept that I made mistakes, I feel that the levels of fines do not reflect the fact that there was no risk to policyholders or the taxpayer but are a result of the pressures existing in the current environment. However, we will pay the fines and move on.”

Did the guy deserve a big ass punishment? Yes he did. This big? I don’t know.

But it’s all about redistributing the lack-of-wealth down south at the minute, so I’d expect things like this to happen more often in the not too distant future…

Pity, because I’d always had a bit of a soft spot for Quinn. He’d made himself bloody rich, yes, but he’d also made life considerably easier for a lot of people. What with throwing money at the insurance market when it was ridiculously overly expensive up here, and rescuing BUPA Ireland when it was threatened by government fuckwittery and greed a few years ago. But if he broke the rules, he’s gotta pay a price.

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¹ – as evidenced by the truly excellent idea of cutting ministerial and senior civil service salaries, which should really be happening all over the world, and not just in times of economic woe.