[The Stanford Series] Strategies to cope with the SEC
There’s something else that emerged from the SEC on Friday — something that was coincidentally largely lost in the Goldman-CDO commotion.
It’s a report by the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General,
[The Stanford Series] Ponzi victims, unite!
Fraud – it brings people together. As Bloomberg reported on Wednesday:
Victims of Bernard Madoff and accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford are banding together to lobby Congress for a law that could require Wall Street firms to pay billions of dollars to cover some of the losses they suffered.
[The Stanford Series] Arise Allen Stanford, un-knighted…
Sir Allen Stanford, accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of masterminding a $7bn Ponzi scheme, was quite proud of the honorific bestowed upon him by the Antiguan government in 2006.
To give the man his full title,
[The Stanford Series] Jail proving a big headache for Sir Allen [UPDATED]
Sir Allen Stanford, the fallen financier accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme, is not having an easy time adapting to his new, yacht-free life.
The Texan businessman,
[The Stanford Series] Allen Stanford, puppetmaster: By Freddie Flintoff
We missed the Freddie Flintoff-tells-all-about-Allen-Stanford extravaganza in the Daily Mail on Thursday, since we tend not to read that newspaper with any regularity.
But as a service to any cricket-loving FT Alphaville readers,
[The Stanford Series] A public defender rides to Sir Allen’s rescue
Accused Ponzi schemer and former titan of business and sport Sir Allen Stanford – currently behind bars and awaiting trial on a slew of criminal charges – has been assigned a public defender to represent him.
[The Stanford Series] Stanford’s Bellagio debt, redux
Dick DeGuerin, the high-profile criminal attorney vigorously defending Sir Allen Stanford against allegations of running a $7bn Ponzi scheme, has quite a way with words.
Consider his response to the revelation that the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas had sued Sir Allen in a bid to reclaim a rather sizeable gambling debt (via the New York Post):
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s Bellagio problem
Back in May 2009, FT Alphaville reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating whether Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire accused of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme, had violated the terms of the freeze on his assets.
[The Stanford Series] “The investors ought not have to pay for the receiver’s PR firm”
Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver administering the affairs of the Stanford group of companies, is not a popular man.
The SEC has hotly protested his requests to recoup millions of dollars in fees and expenses for his work (and that of his army of lawyers and forensic accountants) unravelling the structure and accounts of the Stanford companies.
[The Stanford Series] Big Brother’s blood oaths
The alleged shenanigans at the Stanford Financial Group went far beyond misleading regulators and fleecing investors, according to court documents released as part of the guilty plea entered by the company’s former CFO,
[The Stanford Series] James Davis pleads guilty to charges related to that $7bn Ponzi
Any emphasis FT Alphaville’s:
WASHINGTON – James M. Davis, 60, the former chief financial officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group (SFG), pleaded guilty today to fraud and obstruction charges related to a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors,
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen discovers there’s no air conditioning in jail
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan businessman who stands accused of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme, is having a hard time adjusting to the reality of his new circumstances.
The financier, who has denied all the allegations against him,
[The Stanford Series] “Fraud victims” want $24bn from the government of Antigua and Barbuda
They are not going to get it.
On Monday, a group of plaintiffs identifying themselves as victims of the Sir Allen Stanford’s alleged $7bn Ponzi scheme filed a class-action lawsuit against the Government of Antigua and Barbuda that claimed (among other things):
[The Stanford Series] The Tripoli-St John’s Nexus
It sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel, and though it’s not quite in the league of The Parsifal Mosaic, court documents filed on Tuesday suggest the Libyan government had invested some $500m with Sir Allen Stanford by the end of 2008.
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s request to unfreeze funds for legal fees denied
US District judge David Godbey, who is presiding over the civil case brought by the SEC against Sir Allen Stanford, has denied the Texan businessman’s petition for the court to partially rescind a freeze on his assets.
[The Stanford Series] Stanford CFO James Davis “intends to plead guilty”, laywer says
James Davis, the former chief financial officer of Stanford Financial Group and who is facing charges related to an alleged $7bn fraud at the group, intends to plead guilty to the three charges against him,
[The Stanford Series] Judge rules Sir Allen Stanford must stay in jail pending trial
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan businessmen indicted on 21 counts relating to an alleged $7bn Ponzi scheme, will have to remain in custody until his trial.
The judge,
[The Stanford Series] Avast, ye salty Stanford lawfirm website
Matthew Goldstein, freshly installed at Reuters, notes the latest twist in the ongoing Alan Stanford saga:
The R. Allen Stanford legal defense story keeps getting stranger and stranger.
While the securities world waits for the inevitable indictment of the Texas financier,
[The Stanford Series] The DEA connection
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.
[The Stanford Series] Laura Pendergest-Holt to face more charges, Fox Business says
Fox Business Network, which has been aggressively pursuing the Stanford story, reported on Monday that Laura Pendergest-Holt is facing further charges:
Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer of the Stanford Financial Group,
[The Stanford Series] Authorities still failing to get along
The SEC’s allegations against Sir Allen Stanford have illustrated the complex and often adversarial relationships between regulators, governments and quasi-governmental bodies, courts and individuals involved.
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s cowboy lawyer
As if you thought the Stanford story couldn’t get any more bizarre, Bloomberg is running an article today on the alleged-Ponzi operator’s elephant-hide wearing, hard-ridin’, Cessna-flyin’, bull-scrotum-owning Texan lawyer:
[The Stanford Series] When it came to Sir Allen Stanford, many warnings went unheeded
In October 2002, a Mexico-based accountant sent a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission expressing his concerns about his mother’s investments with the Stanford Financial Group.
The man’s mother had invested all of her family’s money in high-yielding certificates of deposit at the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
[The Stanford Series] The SEC has strong words for Sir Allen Stanford
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has come out swinging against Sir Allen in its latest court filing, in which the regulator strongly objected to the billionaire’s request that a US court unlock $10m in frozen assets.
[The Stanford Series] Antiguan financial services providers launch PR offensive
After months of public silence and private hand-wringing, Antigua’s financial services sector finally responded (albeit obliquely) to the small matter of an alleged $8bn Ponzi scheme being operated in their midst.
[The Stanford Series] Frozen-out Stanford investors petition Congress
The Stanford Victims Coalition, a loose coalition of aggrieved investors in the Stanford Financial Group and Stanford International Bank (SIB), has petitioned the US Congress for investor protection under the SIPC insurance program.
[The Stanford Series] Stanford victims unite!
Not sure when this was set up but the forums make for particularly interesting reading.
Related links:
Locating Stanford billions will take five years – FT
Sir Allen speaks – FT Alphaville
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen speaks
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire accused of an $8bn fraud, has petitioned a judge to thaw his assets so he can hire a lawyer, court documents released late on Tuesday show.
Sir Allen, the chief executive of the Stanford group of companies,
[The Stanford Series] Vantis reports “significant shortfall of assets” at Stanford International Bank
Vantis, the UK-based company appointed by Antigua regulators to oversee the affairs of Stanford International Bank – which claimed more than $8bn in assets – is not optimistic about prospects for recovering investors’ cash.
[The Stanford Series] Laura Pendergest-Holt agrees to extend indictment deadline
Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of the Stanford Group, on Monday agreed to a 30-day delay of her indictment on the charge of obstructing the SEC’s investigation into Sir Allen and the Stanford Group.