WTF? Developer gets elected for Wexford who owes €40,000,000

K-9

mike65 wrote: »

Can this be a surprise? Did anyone think he would 'fess up without there being a pressing reason?

Standard procedure with a Revenue Audit. You get 21 days or so to notice any 'discrepancies', and disclose them, lesser penalties.

Thing is, he never mentioned that he was going to be audited, him and his supporters were putting it forward as some noble act!

ilovesleep

Ok, I wasn't following this thread nor did I go back pages but what is this about? Can someone please fill me in?
Mick Wallace and 2million is what I gather from the last page.

Did he defraud the state of 2 million in tax?

And garlic man is paying his price in prison. Jesus christ. Discrimination. What will it take for those in the Dail to abide by the same laws as us, the little maggoty slaves that they are making us out to be.

ilovesleep

Qualitymark wrote: »

Here's the full piece, from Business & Finance in 2005:

http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=413&n=427&a=2095


Mick Wallace's dolce vita
Developer Mick Wallace's motto is ‘Life is Short. Work Hard. Play Hard. Love Football.' He talks to Fearghal O'Connor about wealth, wine and replicating his Italian quarter around Dublin's working-class areas.

Brendan Behan would probably lament the lack of characters in post Celtic-Tiger Dublin. Yet he need go no further than his birthplace, Russell Street, in the shadow of Croke Park, to see that true originals still stalk the streets.

Wexford builder, wine importer and successful soccer coach Mick Wallace is bringing a little slice of his beloved Italy to a part of the north inner city that most developers only hurry through on their way to GAA matches.

Using his acclaimed Bloom's Quarter development on Lower Ormond Quay as a blueprint, Wallace is developing 80 apartments around a courtyard with a distinctly Mediterranean flavour. A similar development is underway in Inchicore. As in Bloom's Quarter, Wallace himself will run the Italian-themed cafés, grocers and wine bars to ensure authenticity.

Back in Ormond Quay, Wallace caresses a huge boardroom table in a plush office lined with rows of fine Italian wine. Despite the plush décor and the sundrenched view of the Millennium Bridge, nothing quite catches the eye like Wallace's bright pink Palermo football jersey.

"Building properly in two working-class areas with the same sorts of ideas we used here appeals to me greatly," he says. "Russell Street will be even better than this. It's going to be beautiful. People think I am mad doing proper building work beside working-class housing estates. But if I build rubbish houses up there, what am I going to do for the area? They are going to be seriously good apartments including 26 affordable units. I am going to build very well there but still make good money on it. I'm no martyr. I am running a business and I make sure it pays its way. I never lost money on a job in my life but I try to run it in an honest fashion."

To some, Wallace's ageing rock star appearance suggests otherwise. When the company was laying cobblelock for the City Council on South William Street, Wallace decided to do it himself to make sure it was done right. One evening, while he worked below, Tony O'Reilly came up the steps of a nearby hotel and was met by the manager. While chatting, the manager said to O'Reilly "do you see that fella with the long hair laying the cobbles? He actually owns that company." "My God," Wallace recalls O'Reilly answering, "imagine owning a company with hair like that."

Such a reaction was nothing new. Soon after Wallace started out on his own, a contractor gave him three pieces of advice. "Go to a tailor and get yourself a suit, go to a barbers and cut your hair, and join Fianna Fáil." He still hasn't done any of the three. "I wouldn't look great in a suit and I certainly wouldn't look good in Fianna Fáil," he explains. "If I really had to choose, I'd cut the hair."

Wallace has always known his own mind and was condemned from the altar in Wexford at an early age. After Mass, he would go to the sacristy and argue with the priest demanding to be allowed stand up in church and reply to his sermons. He wasn't let so he never went back.

Despite this rebellious streak, Wallace had a normal background. His parents ran a general merchant business in Wellingtonbridge, which his brothers still run today. After school, he studied history and English in UCD followed by a teaching degree.

"I couldn't afford to teach," he says. "There was more going for pushing a wheelbarrow. Having the education makes pushing a wheelbarrow much more pleasurable. Your mind is active and you contemplate the whole meaning of existence."

Nevertheless, he didn't spend too much time pondering what to do next. After learning blocklaying and carpentry, he began doing extensions and attic conversions. The business went from strength-to-strength. A contract to do a huge amount of street work for Dublin City Council made the company. Wallace redid entire streets - paving, furniture, lighting - across the city centre.

This steady income allowed him to start buying land in the late-1990s. He got a great deal on the Ormond Quay site, where he has since sold €15m worth of apartments. Not everyone believed he could make a success of it.

"I had my cap in hand begging the banks for money," he says. "It took me 18 months to get a bank to finance this and five refused me. I expected the AIB to finance it because I had a great relationship with them in Wexford for 15 years. I was brought into AIB headquarters to meet the top boys."

They said they would consider giving him the money on three conditions: that he pre-sell the apartments, that he let AIB appoint a bigger builder and that the bank would supervise the whole project financially and Wallace would pay for their supervisor.

"In all fairness," he said to them, "I realise that my hair might be a little bit too long for yiz and maybe you don't like the cut of me jeans. But I will raise goats on that land before I let somebody else build it."

If another bank had not come up with the cash, the north quays would be home to a thriving goat farm today. Wallace was always prepared to go the extra step to achieve his ambitions.

Some years ago, one of Dublin's biggest builders was given a stark example of this. Wallace did £170,000 worth of work for him but was only paid £150,000, a stunt the powerful builder was well-known for. After six months of legal action, Wallace's solicitor told him it would take two years to get to court and he'd be lucky to get £2,000.

"So I knew of a guy made a living out of a gun," he says. "I made contact with him and said ‘listen, there's a guy owes me £20,000 - will you get it for me?' He said he would give me £16,000 and keep £4,000."

"There was a guy working for the builder and I deliberately went for a pint with him," continues Wallace. "‘Did you hear I'm getting the money out of your boss?' I said to him. ‘I hired a hitman and he's going to get it. Don't tell anyone now.' Next day I got a phone call from the managing director. ‘Mr Wallace,' he says, ‘I believe there is a bit of a financial dispute on that job. Can we meet and talk about it?' I met them and they offered me £15,000. I said I'd take £16,000. Of course, I never would have dreamt of actually hiring the hitman. I only used him as leverage but it worked."

He admits that as a businessman he personally has done well out of many of the Government's policies. Nevertheless, he is not afraid to criticise what he sees as Fianna Fáil's dishonesty - most famously when he hung a massive banner on his Ormond Quay site imploring people to vote No to Nice.

"I wouldn't be as well-off if I worked in a socialist system but I do believe that corporation tax should be higher," he says. "The Government should put the priorities of the people ahead of those of business. I would praise the Government that does that even if it costs me more."

For now though, he is unlikely to be found in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. Neither is he overly enamoured with many of his fellow developers who flock to it.

"More often than not, the developer is trying to make the maximum profit and he is not awful concerned about the finished product," he says. "It is whatever he can get away with. There are developers and builders who care but, unfortunately, too many who don't. There are a lot of really great planners in the City Council but they don't have enough control over the finished product."

For his part, Wallace is prepared to go to unusual lengths to achieve the finished product he desires. He was determined to create an Italian flavour at Bloom's Quarter so his company runs seven of the shops itself - two coffee shops, two wine bars, an Italian food shop and a clothes shop. He also gives temporary accommodation to a Communist Party of Ireland bookshop.

"Running wine bars and coffee shops is difficult," he says. "I wouldn't do it if I only took financial considerations into account. They are doing well but there is no money in it. I do it because to be honest I wanted to give something to the city in that line. Wine in this country is a terrible rip-off. 95% of the wine coming in here is factory wine. I am buying quality wine at a reasonable price direct from small Italian producers that I can trust. I go to the vineyards to taste the wines and meet the people, spend a few hours with them and get to know them. I wouldn't buy their wines if I didn't think they were honest. We are bringing quality wine to Ireland at a very affordable rate for the first time. Your average supermarket wine and a lot of the stuff available in restaurants is of very poor quality but the Irish are drinking it by the gallon."

He now owns a small vineyard in Italy and hopes to soon sell wine from it in Dublin. But it is not just Italian wine that he loves.

"I love their football for a start," he says. "I like the people, their passion, and it's the best place in the world to eat. I am passionate about food."

This love affair began when he visited the country for the World Cup in 1990. He never stopped going back and bought an apartment in Turin seven years ago. Apart from the vineyard, he has also set up a small building company in Italy - despite having to overcome incredible bureaucracy to get anything done.

Such business ties give Wallace the perfect excuse to regularly indulge his passion for Italian soccer. He tries to absorb as much as he can from the Italian game to bring it back to the Wexford Junior soccer team, which he coaches.

He has regularly taken his team to Turin for tournaments and special coaching. It has paid off - they have contested four all-Ireland finals in seven years and his influence has helped to turn the Wexford league into one of the biggest outside Dublin.

"At the moment I'm spending €1.5m on a football complex down in Wexford," he says. "Hopefully I will start a Wexford under-21 side next year or the year after."

He is often linked to takeovers of League of Ireland clubs such as Waterford United. "There's no League of Ireland club paying its way so if I did set one up it would have to be on an amateur basis," he says. "Running a professional League of Ireland club is impossible."

Somehow, though, it seems, the word impossible does not feature in Wallace's dictionary.

http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fearghaloconnor

What county did Wallace get elected from? Is it Wexford? People who voted for this man given his history, should hang their heads in shame.

This country was led and is being pushed over a cliff due to electing crooks.

K-9

ilovesleep wrote: »

Ok, I wasn't following this thread nor did I go back pages but what is this about? Can someone please fill me in?
Mick Wallace and 2million is what I gather from the last page.

Did he defraud the state of 2 million in tax?

He under-declared VAT on sales of €1.4 Million, amounted to €2.1 Million with penalties and interest.

And garlic man is paying his price in prison. Jesus christ. Discrimination. What will it take for those in the Dail to abide by the same laws as us, the little maggoty slaves that they are making us out to be.

The difference seems to be garlic man fraudulently mis-declared produce for a prolonged period, seemed to be a systemic and prolonged fraud, Wallace left out sales because of financial difficulty.

Wallace should have declared his liability and then came to some type of a payment schedule. Garlic man shouldn't have evaded tax in such an intentional and prolonged way.

That's from a viewpoint of some experience with Revenue, not the moral implications of a TD caught giving false tax returns.

Meauldsegosha

Mick Wallace just announced in the Dail that he is going to use half his TD salary to repay his tax liability. So he is going to use public funds to pay his tax bill, there is something very wrong there.

Only in Ireland could that happen. Some TDs clapped when he finished, shower of f*ckers.

smash

Meauldsegosha wrote: »

Mick Wallace just announced in the Dail that he is going to use half his TD salary to repay his tax liability. So he is going to use public funds to pay his tax bill, there is something very wrong there.

Only in Ireland could that happen. Some TDs clapped when he finished, shower of f*ckers.

Grand so, should be paid back in around 25 years.... :mad:

Scioch

He should resign his seat, fcukin clown.

DEFTLEFTHAND

smash wrote: »

Grand so, should be paid back in around 25 years.... :mad:

More like 50+.

RayM

There are at last 100 TDs who I'd rather see resigning.

Mardy Bum

He is about as articulate as a tin of soup.
He dresses like a clown.
He is a fraudulent individual who ran his business into the ground.
How some people think he is different to the old guard is beyond me.