Budget The budget of the Bureau over the period 2008 to 2021 was as follows: Officers and staff Officers and staff of the CAB (with the exception of members of the and the Bureau Legal Officer) are protected with statutory anonymity. This anonymity, whilst causing some concerns, has been recognised an important practical issue for all countries when faced with action against people who may be involved in violent crime and extortion and recognises that although police and customs officers are usually trained to deal with such threats and to expect them, revenue and social security officials do not reasonably expect to have to deal with such risks when they take a job. A number of people have been convicted for threatening CAB officers: Christopher Pratt was sentenced in 2013 to three years in prison for threatening to "take the head off" a CAB officer. Paschal Kelly was sentenced in 2015 to four-and-a-half years in prison for threatening a CAB officer, tax evasion and serious driving offences, and more recently in February 2019 was sentenced to 18 years in prison following a conviction for a "tiger kidnapping". Fachtna Murphy was the first Chief Bureau Officer and Barry Galvin was the first Bureau Legal Officer. The current Chief Bureau Officer is Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins (who succeeded Pat Clavin) and the current Bureau Legal Officer is Kevin McMeel. The former Bureau Legal Officer was Declan O'Reilly. The Bureau Legal Officer is appointed following a recruitment campaign run by the Public Appointments Service. Background The CAB was established in October 1996 by the then Minister for Justice, Nora Owen TD, and was established on 15 October 1996. The CAB was established to deal with increasing levels of serious organised crime in Ireland, most notable being the murders of crime reporter Veronica Guerin and Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. The CAB was set up by the Oireachtas as a body corporate primarily for the purpose of ensuring that persons should not benefit from any assets acquired by them from any criminal activity. It was given power to take all necessary actions in relation to seizing and securing assets derived from criminal activity, certain powers to ensure that the proceeds of such activity are subject to tax, and also in relation to the Social Welfare Acts. However, as the High Court has noted, it is not a prosecuting body nor a police authority but