Exposed: How a dirty secret went to the very heart of Irish banking

Twenty-five years ago, the ‘Sunday Independent’ revealed how tax fraud on a gigantic scale was taking place at the country’s biggest bank, AIB

About 60pc of account holders lied about being non-resident, saying they lived in the UK or US

Liam Collins

After reading it carefully, the Sunday Independent news editor handed back a draft report detailing a gigantic tax fraud at the country’s biggest bank. “That reads like the ‘Hitler Diaries’,” he said. “We’re going to need a hell of a lot more if we’re going to publish it.”