Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 4 - National Pensions Reserve Fund
Chapter 25 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency - Financial Statements 2011
National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission - Financial Statements 2011

11:10 am

Mr. John Corrigan:

What we are dealing with is, as I said at the outset, fraud. That is our view of it. I am entering the realm, to some extent, of speculation but I will enter it. For fraud to be successful - if that is the correct word - there has to be internal collusion. Clearly, there was collusion within State Street of some form or fashion that enabled €100 million which was the proceeds which came in from the external broker when it sold the shares to be transformed into €99.93 million for on-transmission to us. The price was clipped within State Street in its omnibus brokerage department. The reason we are waiting on the FSA report is that there were three exits, as I explained to the Chairman, around this issue, not particular to the NTMA, but this was perpetrated on a number of major investment funds, including ourselves. We have to see whether the culpability extends beyond certain levels.