On May 26, the UK-based medical devices multinational Smith & Nephew appointed Brendan Lynch of PwC to liquidate one of its two Irish subsidiaries, Smith & Nephew Finance Ireland Ltd. Its other, trading subsidiary was not affected. The finance company was created less than four years earlier and had an address at the office of its secretary, corporate services firm TMF. The only transaction it ever conducted was to issue a $1.9 billion loan to another, unidentified Smith & Nephew group company. The corresponding amount was booked in the share premium account of Smith & Nephew Finance Ireland. Year after…