Agency eyes phone taps in battle against white collar crime

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) will ask the Government for powers to mount electronic surveillance and intercept communications, such as tapping phones and emails, to combat white collar crime.

The Garda is the only State organisation allowed to intercept communications for investigations. Its power to do so is overseen by the president of the High Court.

Commission chairwoman Isolde Goggin said all State agencies investigating white collar crime should be granted the same powers to boost the chances of successful prosecutions.

Other agencies investigating white collar crime include the commission and Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

EU ready to open talks with US to solve trade row

---

Will Ireland's ‘squeezed middle’ get any relief in Budget 2019?

---

Divide between art and science is disappearing, InspireFest told

---

RTÉ agrees to review status of 106 contractors

---

“We need a greater emphasis on technology,” said Ms Goggin. “Do we need [communications] surveillance and interception powers? We need powers closer to that of the gardaí.”

Ms Goggin said the secretive nature of some criminal acts investigated by the commission, such as economic cartels, suggest that its investigations would be bolstered by such powers.

“The GNEC [Garda National Economic Crime Bureau] has the power. It is important that all white collar crime agencies have the same suite of powers. We haven’t made a formal request for them yet. [But] we will be making a request.”

Ms Goggin also criticised a “culture of chumminess” in senior Irish corporate circles that she says needs to be addressed.

She warned that many senior Irish business people can “step over the line” in terms of exchanging information with each other about the minutae of their companies and industries.

“Senior people, those who sign off on things [at corporate level], need to take this more seriously. Often at social occasions, for example, senior people from different companies get together and exchange sensitive information.

“It’s not that Irish business people are any more evil than elsewhere. It’s just that at social occasions Irish people talk, and that can move towards collusion.”

Ms Goggin was speaking this week after prosecutors successfully obtained an increase in the fines levied on a man in the first successful prosecution for bid rigging in the history of the State.

Former flooring company manager Brendan Smith, of Greenane, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, was convicted of helping to rig the price of contracts for flooring on major building projects, such as the headquarters of multinationals including PayPal, Mastercard and Dell.

The court had heard that Mr Smith secretly met his co-conspirators from a rival company in Dublin cafes on at least 16 occasions to rig the prices they bid in tenders, effectively carving the work up between them.

He was found guilty last year following a four-year investigation led by the commission, although he originally received only a €7,500 fine and a three-month suspended prison sentence.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal increased his fine to €45,000, following an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“We had concerns about the leniency of the sentence,” said Ms Goggin. “These are not victimless crimes. [Multinationals] are important for the economy and the reputation of the country.”

On a week when David Drumm, the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to defraud, Ms Goggin highlighted how difficult it is for the State to obtain criminal prosecutions in white collar crime cases.

“There’s no dead body, no smoking gun. You have to prove a crime even took place, before you can prove culpability. Documents are not enough. Criminal trials rely on evidence from people, preferably those who were in the room. That’s why we have immunity programmes.”

The commission has an “immunity phone”, linked to a hotline, that is always carried by one of its senior managers.