The Irish government is scrambling to launch an investigation of the 2008 Anglo Irish Bank collapse after the Irish Independent uncovered damaging internal telephone recordings between two senior executives from the period.

The newspaper says the recordings reveal “a dual strategy of deception and scare tactics to the lure [the national government] into a financial trap that eventually cost billions and bankrupted the country.”

The arrogance and deceit of the two bankers is shocking to hear. The recordings are available on the Independent‘s website.

Anglo Irish eventually required a 30 billion Euro bailout from Irish taxpayers. One of the bank’s toxic assets is located near my home in Tampa, as detailed in my blog post for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Anglo Irish Bank held a defaulted $27 million note on Channelside Bay Plaza, below, a retail and entertainment complex in Tampa, Florida. TBBJ photo.