RSS feedSir Allen Stanford
’Schapiro defends regulators. Again.
Mary Schapiro must be getting a bit bored of having to mount lengthy defences of the regulatory bodies she has headed.
Under her tenure, for instance, FINRA failed entirely to investigate numerous tips that Allen Stanford and Bernard Madoff might not have been on their best behaviour.
[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.
Things that don’t get reported any more…
We’ve pinged an email to the site administrator, but we can report that the SEC’s search function on their website doesn’t work properly.
Try it yourself. Go here and type the word “ponzi” into the search box to the right.
Professional athletes and their money, Ponzi edition
In March 2009, FT Alphaville riffed on the theme of the generally poor financial and investment decisions made by professional athletes.
By the end of the year, another — although not unrelated — trend had emerged:
[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,
Finra get an F – ‘failed to investigate’
Finra, the main regulatory body for the US brokerage industry, issued a mea culpa on Friday in the wake of an internal report that found the agency repeatedly failed to investigate tips about accused Ponzi schemer Sir Allen Stanford and convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.
[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] “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):
Libya invested at least $500m with Stanford
The Libyan government invested at least $500m with Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas businessman accused by the US government of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme, the FT reported, citing court documents. FT Alphaville dubbed the matter – disclosed in a statement by Sir Allen’s girlfriend filed in Houston on Tuesday – the “St John’s-Tripoli nexus“.
[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.
Stanford refused bail
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, on Tuesday was ordered to stay behind bars as he awaited trial on charges of being involved in a $7bn Ponzi scheme and buying the co-operation of a senior Caribbean regulator.
[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,
Stanford bail ruling delayed
Sir Allen Stanford faced another night in jail on Monday after a US district judge delayed a ruling on whether the Texas businessman accused of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme would be granted bail pending his trial on fraud charges.
Stanford pleads not guilty
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to 21 criminal charges, including running a $7bn Ponzi scheme and buying the co-operation of a top Caribbean regulator. If convicted,
Stanford bail hearing set for June 25
Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of leading a $7bn fraud, will appear before a US magistrate judge in Houston on June 25, a day later than planned, reports Bloomberg.The hearing will determine whether Stanford can be released on bail or held until his trial on fraud charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme involving the sale of certificates of deposit at his Antiguan bank.
Stanford surrenders in Virginia
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire, surrendered to US authorities in Virginia on Thursday night after a warrant was issued for his arrest, reports Reuters. He is expected to appear in court Friday morning to face criminal charges,
[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] 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] 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.