[The Stanford Series] Ralph Janvey to Stanford employees: BYOB
Bring your own boxes, that is.
This statement was posted to the Stanford receiver’s website on Monday:
Final Opportunity to Remove Personal Belongings from 5050 Westheimer in Houston, Texas
Posted March 23,
[The Stanford Series] IRS says Sir Allen owes $200m in back taxes
Not a day goes by without some sort of juicy court filing related to Sir Allen Stanford popping up on the Bloomberg.
Like this one, filed on Friday, in which the IRS asked for permission to seek unpaid back taxes from Sir Allen and his soon-to-be ex-wife Susan:
[The Stanford Series] Stanford pleading the fifth
Sir Allen Stanford is refusing to cooperate with the SEC’s investigation of his alleged $8bn fraud.
HOUSTON, March 11 (Reuters) – Allen Stanford, the billionaire Texan accused of an $8 billion fraud by U.S.
[The Stanford Series] Invested with Sir Allen? The FBI wants you (to contact them)
This just out (H/T Joanna Chung).
FBI SEEKING TO IDENTIFY VICTIMS IN STANFORD FINANCIAL GROUP INVESTIGATION
The Houston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking information from individuals who have invested in the Stanford Financial Group (SFG) or its affiliated companies-Stanford Capital Management,
[The Stanford Series] Irony du jour
A juicy professional background report on Sir Allen Stanford has just landed in our inboxes (not commissioned by us, we’d add).
There’s lots in it, but this rather frivolous bit leapt out at us:
Per a March 12,
[The Stanford Series] Stanford’s US employees join the jobless queue
The court-appointed lawyer acting as the receiver for Sir Allen Stanford’s assets and businesses on Friday told 1,000 of the US-based employees that their jobs had been terminated.
These job cuts represent about 85 per cent of the Stanford Financial Group’s US employees,
[The Stanford Series] New details on alleged “massive Ponzi scheme”
Here are some of the amended allegations in the SEC’s filing, emphasis ours:
34. Contrary to SIB’s representations in the brochure about depositor security, SIB made, with Davis’s knowledge, at least $1.6 billion in undocumented “loans” to Stanford.
[The Stanford Series] From “investment fraud” to “massive Ponzi scheme”
The SEC has amended its complaint against R. Allen Stanford, Laura Pendergast-Holt and James Davies.
Here’s a summary of the allegations, emphasis FT Alphaville’s:
1. For at least a decade,
[The Stanford Series] Antigua government moves closer to seizing Stanford properties
After nearly six hours of deliberations, the Antiguan parliament unanimously agreed to move to the Senate a motion to seize some 250 acres of land and properties owned by embattled Texas billionaire Sir Allen Stanford.
[The Stanford Series] This land is our land, Antigua government to say
The government of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda will on Thursday declare its intention to seize more than 250 acres of land belonging to Sir Allen Stanford to help stabilise an economy thrown into turmoil by the $8bn fraud allegations against the Texan tycoon.
[The Stanford Series] Clients of Allen, by the numbers
Here at FT Alphaville we’ve questioned before the $50bn figure touted by Stanford Financial as total assets “under advisement”. Apart from the $8bn or so at SIB, we could find neither hide nor hair of the rest.
[The Stanford Series] The Stanford campaign donations: pay ‘em back, not forward
Why are Stanford’s campaign donations going to charity asked Felix Salmon over at Market Movers last week.
I can see why politicians would want to distance themselves from Stanford. But if he really is a fraudster,
[The Stanford Series] Eastern Caribbean Central Bank “takes control” of the Bank of Antigua
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the monetary authority for eight island nations including Antigua, on Friday assumed control of the Bank of Antigua, part of Sir Allen Stanford’s financial empire.
Bank of Antigua is a strictly domestic and retail operation with three branches on the island,
[The Stanford Series] SIB and Stanford Trust Company Limited put into receivership
Nigel Hanilton-Smith and Peter Wastell, Client Partners at Vantis Business Recovery Services, a division of Vantis, the UK accounting, tax and business advisory group, were appointed by the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) of Antigua and Barbuda as Joint Receivers on 19th February 2009 of Stanford International Bank Ltd.
[The Stanford Series] But which passport will he surrender?
From Reuters:
Billionaire banker Allen Stanford was preparing to surrender his passport after the FBI served him with court papers accusing him of massive fraud, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen Stanford, you’ve been served
“On February 19, 2009, at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Division located and identified Stanford Financial Group chairmanAllen Stanford in the Fredericksburg,
[The Stanford Series] A Freudian slip?
Late on Wednesday, FT Alphaville received our first-ever press release in audio form – a clip of Everette Christan, a representative of the Antigua and Barbuda Bankers Association, reading a statement on the curious matter of Sir Allen Stanford and the scandal’s potential impact on the Bank of Antigua,
[The Stanford Series] Stanford’s AIM foray
What’s more, there’s quite a lot of evidence to suggest that a lot of Stanford’s “investments” were in the kind of micro-cap stocks beloved of pump-and-dump operators. That’s not investing in something liquid and then seeing it freeze up,
[The Stanford Series] Stanford’s mysterious billions
The Stanford Financial empire is crumbling. And it is a very, very messy collapse. Not only do American regulators face the problem of the group’s size and complexity; they are also faced with the fact that the bulk of the Stanford companies are spread outside of the Unites States.
[The Stanford Series] What does the ‘F’ stand for in FINRA?
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, describes itself as “the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States.” It’s basically a private agency set up by the financial industry to regulate itself,
[The Stanford Series] Where in the world is Sir Allen?
This just out from Reuters, emphasis ours:
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford and two of his aides failed to answer subpoenas to testify about what investigators are calling a “massive” fraud, and the government said late on Tuesday that it could not comment on Stanford’s whereabouts.
[The Stanford Series] Have you seen this bank?
Hat tip reader PB
[The Stanford Series] It’s just not cricket
ECB and WICB suspend Stanford talks
17 February 2009
Following allegations made today by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and their decision to apply for a temporary restraining order which was filed in a Dallas/Fort Worth court,
[The Stanford Series] Stanford scandal in pictures
Copyright S-M Ishmael, photographer and sometime Alphaviller.
Here’s a view of Stanford International Bank in St John’s, Antigua. That phrase about fools and their money springs to mind…
Here’s a rather arty shot from inside the lobby at SIB.
[The Stanford Series] The full SEC complaint against Stanford
Well, Stanford International Bank, Standford Group Company, Stanford capital Management, R Allen Stanford, James Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt, to be precise.
[The Stanford Series] The fractal Stanford
Part of the problem for anyone trying to understand the Stanford controversy is the complexity of the Stanford companies themselves.
Stanford Financial is really a collection of independent companies;
[The Stanford Series] ROBERT STANFORD ACCUSED OF `MASSIVE FRAUD’ BY SEC
Statement from the SEC:
____________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2009-26
SEC CHARGES R. ALLEN STANFORD, STANFORD INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT SCHEME
Washington,
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s Antigua, or the curious case of Stanford International Bank
St John’s, Antigua
Antigua, a tiny nation in the Eastern Caribbean with fewer than 90,000 people, bears all the hallmarks you would expect of a tropical island largely reliant upon tourism: fantastic weather and white-sand beaches (license plates bear the text “Land of Sea and Sun”);
[The Stanford Series] Arise, Sir Allen…lest we assume the worst
Back in 1989 FBI swat teams staged synchronised raids on the offices of BCCI in Florida and Washington. Members of the bank’s advisory committee, which included a string of grandees from the era, were pinned to the floor at gun-point.