PrairiePundit

BBC: Evidence has emerged that the Texan who bankrolled English cricket may have been a US government informer. Sir Allen Stanford, who is accused of bank fraud, is the subject of an investigation by the BBC's Panorama. Sources told Panorama that if he was a paid anti-drug agency informer, that could explain why a 2006 probe into his financial dealings was quietly dropped. Sir Allen vigorously denies allegations of financial wrongdoing, despite a massive shortfall in his bank's assets. But the British receiver of his failed Stanford International Bank - based in Antigua - told Panorama that the books clearly show the deficit. Of the $7.2bn (£4.8bn) in deposits claimed by the bank, only $500m (£331m) has been traced. The $6.7bn (£4.4bn) black hole in Sir Allen's off-shore bank affects 28,000 depositors - 200 of whom are British, who have collectively lost $80m (£53m) - and raises serious questions for the British Foreign Office and the American authorities. Se...

Reuters: Allen Stanford , who is accused of an $8 billion fraud by U.S. regulators and had been representing himself in court matters, has hired a civil attorney in Houston, a court filing showed on Tuesday. Jacks "J.C." Nickens, from the firm of Nickens, Keeton, Lawless, Farrell & Flack LLP, filed the papers in U.S. District Court in Dallas. Nickens' firm successfully defended Charles Hurwitz, the embattled chairman of the Maxxam conglomerate, dubbed " Chainsaw Charlie " by environmentalists, in a 10-year legal battle with federal bank regulators after the failure of a Houston savings and loan. Stanford, two of his top aides and three of his companies are accused by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission of a massive Ponzi scheme involving high-yield certificates of deposit issued by his Antigua bank. ... He has hired a good law firm and Nickens is an excellent lawyer. It appears his services wi...

NY Times, Caucus Blog: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has given $100,000 in contributions from Bernard L. Madoff to victims of the disgraced financier’s Ponzi scheme, a spokesman said Thursday. Eric Schultz, the committee’s communications director, said it gave the money to Irving Picard, a trustee appointed to liquidate Mr. Madoff’s assets and process claims from Mr. Madoff’s victims. He did not specify when the committee returned the money. ... This is a smart move. It would have been smarter if they had done it sooner. Some of the others who received contributions from Madoff gave equivalent amounts to charities, but returning the money to the trustee for victims is the more appropriate response. Politicians who received donations in the Stanford scandal should also return the money to those trying to marshall the remaining assets for disposal to victims.

Times: The Texan cricket impresario Allen Stanford borrowed $1.6 billion from his investment empire, it emerged yesterday as his chief investment officer was due in a court in Houston to hear charges that she had obstructed regulators. Laura Pendergest-Holt, who US regulators had hoped would lead them to the heart of what they believed to be one of the biggest frauds in the world, was charged with obstruction on Thursday. She was held in a detention centre and was due to appear in court yesterday. The FBI, which is investigating an alleged $9.2 billion (£6.5 billion) fraud at Mr Stanford’s American investment business, indicated in court papers that they became frustrated with Ms Pendergest-Holt after she failed to reveal how much she knew about Stanford International Bank. In an affidavit the FBI said that she repeatedly misrepresented how much she knew about the whereabouts of the bulk of the assets of the bank and failed to mention that her boss had borrowed $1.6 billion from th...

Houston Chronicle: The chief investment officer for Houston-based Stanford Financial Group was arrested in Houston today on a criminal charge of obstructing a proceeding before a federal agency, the U.S. Justice Department said. The complaint stems from testimony Laura Pendergest -Holt gave to the Securities and Exchange Commission. ... It alleges that Pendergest -Holt made misrepresentations to the SEC in order to obstruct its investigation into Stanford Financial. ... The charges suggest that Pendergast -Holt gave testimony inconsistent with some evidence already in the SEC possession. In cases like this the regulators have a large volume of collected documents and potential witnesses need to be wary of assertions that are inconsistent with what their own documents reveal. The smart course if for the potential defendant to emphasize that their testimony is based on recollection and ask the questioner if they have any documents on the issue with which they can refresh their recoll...

Reuters: Venezuela is unlikely to help investors faced with the loss of billions of dollars deposited at the discredited Stanford International Bank, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said on Wednesday. The OPEC nation's bank regulators say Venezuelans may have invested up to $2.5 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit at the Antigua-based unit of a global financial network owned by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford . U.S. authorities have accused Stanford of carrying out a "massive fraud" by lying to investors. Venezuela last week took over Stanford Bank Venezuela after a run on deposits sparked by the fraud charges weakened the otherwise healthy bank. Stanford Bank Venezuela is owned by Allen Stanford , but its accounts are not linked to the discredited offshore unit. Finance Minister Rodriguez said Venezuela did not have a responsibility to protect investments made overseas. "We respond to those savers who put their money in a ...

Houston Chronicle: A limited number of Stanford Financial Group clients may be able to regain access to their funds soon, the court appointed receiver said Monday. Clients who turned to Stanford only for investment strategy advice will no longer have their assets frozen under the temporary restraining order, which was issued last week by a federal judge in Dallas when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against several units of the Houston-based firm and three top executives. A statement released Monday by the receiver, Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey, is complicated and says more about who can’t get access to their money than who can. The asset thaw will not benefit clients who had company-managed accounts or invested in Stanford’s branded mutual funds or the certificates of deposits in a Caribbean bank that are at the center of the SEC complaint. The receiver’s announcement seemed to indicate accounts under the custodianship of the clearing banks Pershing an...

Washington Post: The court-appointed receiver for R. Allen Stanford's financial group asked national political committees Monday to return campaign contributions from the disgraced Texas billionaire. Letters were sent Monday to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "I hereby request your committee return to the receivership estate all campaign contributions made by Mr. Stanford or the other defendants to your committee," receiver Ralph S. Janvey wrote. "By returning such amounts to the receivership estate, you will help reduce the losses suffered by victims of the alleged fraud." Stanford, accused in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit of a "massive" fraud, was served with legal papers by FBI agents last week but has not been charged with any crime. The SEC said ...

Houston Chronicle: Investors willing to entrust $5 million to Stanford International Bank got the royal treatment in a Caribbean paradise. There was the flight to Antigua on one of the company’s private jets, lunch at the festive Sticky Wicket restaurant, a one-on-one presentation from the bank president and senior investment officer and a dinner party at the exclusive Pavilion restaurant. Snorkeling, an island tour and other outings were also common, all part of the effort to impress existing investors or woo new ones. But when investors asked probing questions — like how the bank made market-beating profits year after year or how investments were monitored — a polite but persistent shroud came down, according to documents filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week in a civil fraud case. “I was trained not to divulge too much information,” said Michael Zarich, the former senior investment officer with the bank, in a transcript of interviews done by SEC agents earlier...

Independent: More than 20 years ago, the authorities repeatedly probed Allen Stanford’s alleged links to some of the world’s biggest and most powerful drug lords. Despite no fewer than five investigations into suspected drug money laundering by law enforcers ranging from Scotland Yard to the FBI, no charges were ever brought. As banking officials in Central and South America and in the Caribbean moved quickly to freeze accounts linked to Stanford, the full extent of suspicions surrounding his business dealings emerged. Last night, the England and Wales Cricket Board was under growing pressure over its decision to enter into a £50m deal for Stanford’s businesses to sponsor Twenty20 tournaments. The ECB refused to say what detailed steps it took to find out whom it was dealing with before agreeing the deal. The 58-year-old businessman, whose personal fortune was estimated at $2.2bn last year, headed a global financial group which claimed to have $51bn worth of assets under management...

Observer /Guardian: Sir Allen Stanford , the billionaire at the centre of one of the world's largest fraud investigations, repeatedly used the British royal family to convince investors that he was a bona fide businessman with impeccable credentials. Stanford Financial Group (SFG) used at least four royals in its glossy publicity brochures, magazines and websites to emphasise the tycoon's respectability - at a time when difficult questions were being asked about how his operations made money. Through his sponsorship of prestigious polo tournaments in London and the US, Stanford, who is also suspected of having links with a Mexican drug cartel, rubbed shoulders with Britain's aristocracy, laying on lavish hospitality that garnered him much favourable PR. SFG's website boasts of its sponsorship of the Stanford charity polo day, hosted by Prince Charles, which raises money for the British Forces Foundation. An article in Stanford Financial's magazine, Eagle, displays a...

Houston Chronicle: Authorities for years have investigated R. Allen Stanford, looking for ties to organized drug cartels and money laundering, going back at least a decade when the Texas billionaire’s offshore bank surrendered $3 million in drug money, state and federal sources told the Houston Chronicle Friday. But no one has ever been able to make a criminal case. Texas securities officials investigated, as did the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI. But none found solid evidence of a link between drug money and Stanford, who now stands accused of running a multibillion-dollar fraud at his offshore bank in Antigua and Houston-based brokerage firm. In the late 1990s, according to court documents, operatives of the Juarez cartel began opening accounts at Stanford’s Antigua-based bank in an effort to launder money amassed under one of Mexico’s most vicious drug lords, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Together, they used Stanford International Bank to open 10 accounts and deposit...

Guardian: Sir Allen Stanford , the Texas billionaire, has been accused this week of a multiplicity of sins, from perpetrating an $8bn fraud to links with drugs running. So far, though, no one has thought to reproach him on grounds of modesty. The reason why is obvious the moment a visitor steps out of the arrivals lounge at Antigua's international airport. Just to the left is the Stanford Cricket Ground, scene of last November's controversial Twenty20 match between the Stanford Superstars and England, with its $20m jackpot. Behind that is the Bank of Antigua, owned by Stanford. Straight ahead is a lavish colonial mansion with majestic columns and cascades of flowering bougainvillea, home of the Stanford International Bank where the alleged fraud is said to have been focused. To the right is the Sun, the largest newspaper in Antigua, proprietor: Sir Allen Stanford. Go further to the right and you come to a port which Stanford has plans to develop. Once complete, it will be conne...

Telegraph: Surely only a fraudster with a supreme sense of invulnerability – or a shaky grasp of cricket slang – would have the nerve to call his restaurant the Sticky Wicket. But then Sir Robert Allen Stanford has clearly never been short on Texan-style chutzpah. Amid claims that not only the FBI, but also a notorious Mexican drugs cartel are now on his case, Sir Allen is at the crease and facing some very tricky balls. That said, one could understand if the flamboyant, 6ft 4in financier and sports promoter now at the centre of $8 billion fraud allegations had felt more than usually secure on the small Caribbean island of Antigua. Visitors alighting at the international airport might be forgiven for thinking they have landed in Stanfordland, a lavishly appointed theme park dedicated to pampering his guests and glorifying his name. Important clients of a business that reportedly handled up to $51 billion in investments can land at his own private te...

Telegraph: ... Sir Allen has been accused of making false claims to investors about the returns he could get for their money. It was also disclosed yesterday that he was being investigated by the FBI over possible links to a drug cartel. Mexican authorities detained one of his private aircraft last year and found cheques that it believed could be connected to the Gulf cartel, one of Mexico's most violent gangs, according to unnamed federal officials. However, sources said there was no indication of any imminent charges in relation to the case. The Daily Telegraph has also learnt that federal investigators are assessing whether Sir Allen and a number of senior colleagues at Stanford International Bank, the Antiguan-based bank which is at the centre of the $8bn fraud allegations, might be charged with counts of mail fraud, securities fraud and possible money laundering. Although those investigations are understood to be at an advanced stage, a ...

CNN: Federal agents have located financier Robert Allen Stanford and served him with papers accusing him and three of his companies of orchestrating a $9.2 billion investment fraud scheme, the FBI said Thursday. Stanford, who was located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has no criminal charges pending against him and was not taken into custody, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. But the Securities and Exchange Commission says Stanford was behind "a fraud of shocking magnitude," and the FBI served him a copy of the SEC complaint, Kolko said. ... It is ironic that the FBI found Stanford just a few miles from the FBI's training academy at Quantico, Virginia in the same community that the Marine Corps trains officers. The story did not indicate what Stanford was doing there. He is a long way from any of his far flung businesses, but he is relatively close to Washington, DC where he has a heavy investment in Democrat politicians. Yes, I know he made a few donations to Republican...

BBC: Standing at 6ft 4in tall, broad-shouldered Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford cuts an imposing figure. And the wealth he has built since he started in property in Houston in the 1980s has seen him acquire an international profile. He has rubbed shoulders with some of the world's most prominent business people, politicians and sports stars. Sir Allen, a 58-year-old father of six, is 205th on America's rich list, with a $2.2bn (£1.5bn) fortune, according to the Forbes 400 listing of American's wealthiest individuals. He is a fifth-generation Texan who controls a global wealth management company, the Stanford Financial Group, which claims clients from 140 countries and has assets of $50bn (£35bn) under management. The Stanford empire started during the Great Depression in 1932 when his grandfather Lodis founded the first company in the small Texas town of Mexia. After making his first fortune in property, Sir Allen began expanding the family firm. One of the companie...

From the Houston Chronicle: Stanford didn’t pay his own taxes, records indicate None were apparently paid in 2007 or 2008 while he was making huge contributions to Democrats, including President Obama.

Reuters: Federal regulators said on Wednesday they do not know the whereabouts of billionaire Texas banker Allen Stanford , charged with a "massive" $8 billion international financial fraud. "We are unaware of his whereabouts," Securities and Exchange Commission spokeswoman Kimberly Garber said from Texas. Asked if Stanford may be outside the United States, she said: "Certainly that's a possibility, but we don't know." U.S. marshals assisting the SEC have been unable to serve Stanford with court orders freezing assets and appointing a receiver to run his Stanford Financial Group companies since a raid on his Houston headquarters Tuesday, Garber said. Garber said she was unaware of any warrants for Stanford's arrest and said the SEC was still hoping for his voluntary cooperation on the civil fraud charges. "Certainly he is still subject to the court orders. To that extent, we certainly want to ensure that ...

Reuters: Hundreds of people lined up to withdraw money from banks in Antigua and Caracas affiliated with Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, a day after the tycoon was charged with an $8 billion fraud. The whereabouts of the brash, 58-year-old financier were unknown. CNBC television said he tried to hire a private jet to fly from Houston, the site of his U.S. headquarters, to Antigua, but the jet lessor refused to accept his credit card. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Stanford of operating a fraud centered on the sale of certificates of deposit from his Antiguan affiliate, Stanford International Bank Ltd (SIB). The scheme has drawn comparisons with the alleged $50 billion fraud by Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff . In the twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda, where Stanford is the biggest private employer, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said the charges against him could have "catastrophic" consequences but urged the pu...