On Monday, the BBC’s Panorama claimed that it had strong evidence to back up the long-speculated-about notion that Sir Allen Stanford was a US government informer:

Panorama is aware of strong evidence that Sir Allen was a confidential agent of the DEA as far back as 1999 – the year he made out the $3.1m cheque to the DEA. Sources close to the DEA believe he worked with the agency, turning over details of money-laundering from Latin American clients from Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela and Ecuador, effectively guaranteeing himself a decade’s worth of “protection” from the authorities, especially the SEC. 

What though, if the boot was rather on the other foot? Aware that the DEA were sniffing around, what if Stanford “turned informer” precisely in order to keep them blind to the rest of his business? The DEA might never have been aware that he was operating an alleged Ponzi scheme.

GQ anyway, has a great little vignette – part of a much longer article – about Stanford’s first run in with the DEA.  What seems pretty clear from it is the fact that they were as charmed by him as everyone else was.

This past March, I spoke with David Tinsley, a former supervisory agent for the DEA who ran a large money-laundering task force out of Miami. Tinsley himself is a controversial character who was fired and rehired by the DEA after a disagreement involving an informant, and he now runs a private intelligence company called 5 Stones Intelligence. He told me he contacted Stanford for the first time in 1999, as Stanford was preparing to fly from D.C. to Houston. When Stanford answered the phone, Tinsley told him that he’d found dirty money in Stanford’s bank, a lot of it, and that he’d already sent out subpoenas. Stanford told his pilots to reroute his flight, and within hours he touched down at the Miami airport, then drove to the secure DEA compound in the center of the city. “We were somewhat staggered that he would come talk to us without a truckload of attorneys,” Tinsley said.

As Stanford sat in a DEA conference room, impeccably dressed and polite, Tinsley told him that he’d been tracking the money of the legendary Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who’d apparently stashed some of his funds in Stanford International. “Mr. Tinsley,” Stanford finally said, “if you tell me this money’s bad and get a seizure order, I’ll personally deliver it.”

Tinsley shook his head as he recounted the scene, still surprised by Stanford’s willingness to cooperate. “He said, ‘If I have other accounts you want to know about, just tell me. I’ll let you see them!’ ” Agents say Stanford also told them he’d been approached by international spy services—Tinsley assumed he meant the British secret-intelligence service, MI6—who wanted access to his customer accounts. “I want you to be aware,” Tinsley recalled Stanford telling him, “I’ve never helped them, but I’m helping you.”

Tinsley suspected that access to Stanford’s books would open up a gigantic trove of information about drug money, and several months after that meeting, Tinsley tried to recruit a Stanford International executive, offering $250,000 to become a confidential informant for the DEA. But Stanford’s employee turned him down. “The pathology of loyalty in that company,” Tinsley said, “was very strong.”

The next time Tinsley met Stanford, not long after that, Stanford embraced him and said, “My good friend! Why did you try to recruit my employee?” Right before Tinsley retired from the DEA, though, in 2008, Stanford called him one more time. “He offered me a job,” Tinsley said. “He said to come and see him.” 

Related link:
US jury makes first indictment in Stanford case – FT

This entry was posted by Sam Jones on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 16:08 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with Antigua, sec, Sir Allen Stanford, Stanford, Stanford International Bank. Edit this entry.