Sir Allen Stanford and the Bank Runs in South America

[Dartzap]

It's just not Cricket

Hundreds of depositors of the Bank of Antigua have been withdrawing their funds after bank owner Sir Allen Stanford was charged with fraud.

Branches in Antigua, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador had to cope with queues of anxious customers, reports said.

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank urged people not to panic, saying the bank had sufficient funds.

It warned that a run on the bank would "precipitate the very situation that we are all trying to avoid".

Sir Allen was charged with $8bn (£5.6bn) investment fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. His whereabouts are unknown.

“ Your savings are safe. Do not panic ”
Finance ministry official in Antigua

A US judge froze the assets of Sir Allen and the other defendants as well as those of the Stanford Group, its Antigua-based subsidiary Stanford International Bank (SIB) and another subsidiary, investment advisor Stanford Capital Management.

The Bank of Antigua is part of Sir Allen's global business interests but is separate from SIB.

A finance ministry official told Antiguan radio: "Your savings are safe. Do not panic."

At one branch in the Antigua capital St John's about 600 people queued, Reuters news agency said. A similar-sized crowd was seen at another branch near the airport.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said on Tuesday that the charges against Sir Allen could have "catastrophic" consequences for the nation, but he also urged people not to panic.

The Stanford group is the largest private employer in Antigua and Barbuda, covering financial, media and sporting franchises.

In Colombia, the local arm of the Stanford Group stopped trading on the stock exchange.

The SEC said on Tuesday that the fraud was "based on false promises and fabricated historical return data".

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) suspended sponsorship negotiations with Sir Allen following the fraud charges.

The Stanford Group says it is worth more than $40bn, and Forbes magazine lists Sir Allen as the world's 605th richest man.

Originally this was only mentioned due to his involvement in the cricket here - seems he had fingers in many pies, much to the distress of many South Americans. Apparently when he boarded a flight to Antigua earlier today his credit card bounced, guess he won't be avoiding the long arm of the law any time soon.

Not sure how he got the lordship, but I'll be bound that'll vanish eventually.

[aerius]

Rumour has it he's hiding out in one of his many resort homes under an assumed identity.
A few more weeks and some plastic surgery and they'll never find him.

[J]

And now you know why they could offer 8% CDs...

Reuters link

Stanford under federal drug investigation - ABC-TV
Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:29pm EST

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and others have been investigating whether Texas billionaire Allen Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico Gulf cartel, ABC News reported on Wednesday, citing federal authorities.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged Stanford and two executives of Stanford Group Co with an $8 billion fraud.

Mexican authorities detained one of Stanford's private planes as part of the investigation, which has been ongoing since last year, ABC reported citing unnamed officials.

Officials said checks found inside the plane were believed to be connected to the Gulf cartel, reputed to be Mexico's most violent gang, ABC reported.

ABC cited authorities as saying that Stanford could potentially face criminal charges of money laundering and bribery of foreign officials.

Authorities said the SEC's action against Stanford on Tuesday may have complicated the federal drug investigation. (Reporting by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

...proceeds from money laundering!

[Hillary]

This is going to screw West Indies cricket even more than it is already. He had promised to put frightening sums of money into developing the sport in the islands.

On a positive note, it effectively kills off the idea of the EPL 20/20. Good.

[Dartzap]

I would just love to know how in the seven hells they managed to let him go to ground. Most police operations would have him being nicked at the same time as the offices being raided, surely?

[J]

One day, there shall be a movie about this...

Reuters link

Stanford's whereabouts: again a mysteryFri Feb 20, 2009 11:58am EST

By Jim Wolf

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The whereabouts of embattled Texas financier Allen Stanford were a mystery again Friday after the FBI served him a formal complaint in this historic hub noted for ghost stories.

Television crews maintained a vigil outside the family home of a woman reputed to be a girlfriend of Stanford, but there were no signs that he was at the house overnight. Lights were out from early evening.

The modest, three-story, brick-faced townhome belongs to relatives of Andrea Stoelker, according to a cross-referencing data bank and the Free Lance-Star, a Fredericksburg newspaper.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Stanford of defrauding 50,000 customers around the world in a multibillion-dollar investment scheme.

Acting at the request of the SEC, FBI agents caught up with Stanford on Thursday in Fredericksburg, which lies halfway between Washington and the old Confederate capital in Richmond.

"We were helping out there to locate and serve papers," said Bill Carter, an FBI spokesman in Washington. Stanford, 58, was not taken into custody or arrested, he said. Carter declined to say how Stanford had been located.

No one at the Stoelkers' house returned a message left on an answering machine that greeted callers with: "You've reached the Stoelkers. We're not available to take your call right now. Please leave a message and we'll call you back as soon as possible."

There were conflicting reports about whether Stanford had surrendered his passport yet. One law enforcement official told Reuters on Thursday that he was making arrangements to do so. ABC News, however, said he had done so Thursday and then driven to Fredericksburg.

Carter referred questions about the passport to the SEC. Kevin Callahan, an SEC spokesman, said he could not immediately clarify the status of Stanford's passport, which a court has ordered him to turn over.

Also uncertain was an ABC News report that Stanford had hired Williams & Connolly partner Brendan Sullivan, one of Washington's best-known criminal defense lawyers, to represent him.

When asked about the ABC report, one of Sullivan's assistants, Rhonda Meadows, told Reuters: "Mr. Sullivan has not been retained."

The SEC filed civil charges in Dallas on Tuesday against Stanford and two colleagues, as well as Stanford International Bank Ltd, Stanford Group Co and Stanford Capital Management LLC. The agency accuses them of a "massive, ongoing fraud."

Until regulators got help Thursday from the FBI, the SEC could not find Stanford. His whereabouts had been the subject of intense speculation since he failed to respond to an SEC subpoena to answer questions about his company's operations.

Officials did not say how the FBI learned that Stanford was in Virginia, but they said he had not been hiding and he was not a fugitive.

British news reports had identified Andrea Stoelker, a former local resident, as Stanford's girlfriend and president of the board of directors of a cricket tournament that he sponsors in Antigua.

An encounter last November between a Free Lance-Star reader and Stanford seemed to support the idea that his girlfriend has local ties.

The reader e-mailed the paper Thursday night, saying Stanford bought the reader's family dinner at a local restaurant, Claiborne's, on November 7 after the family agreed to give up its earlier reservation time.

He introduced himself as Allen Stanford, said he lived in the Virgin Islands and that his girlfriend's parents lived in the area, the reader wrote.

According to a local tour operator, Fredericksburg has a reputation as "one of the most haunted locales in the United States."

"With a long history dating back to pre-Colonial times, and a legacy of slavery and war, it is no wonder that so many unhappy phantoms wander the streets," the tour operator says in promotional material.

(Reporting by Jim Wolf; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

So they found him, served him papers...and let him vanish again. Nice work people, nice work.

[Aratech]

*smacks forehead*

Wow...

Is it wrong to hope that this kind of incompetence is going to cost someone his job?

[White Haven]

That's the kind of thing that happens when you have a justice system that instantly arrests pot-smokers but allows white-collar criminals to 'turn themselves in.' I've always cordially detested that system, and having that viewpoint vindicated is somewhat cold comfort in this situation.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

I had no idea it was even possible to disappear like this anymore. I mean, if he'd fled to Argentina or Libya or something, fair enough, but he's apparently still in the US, officials have (supposedly) had contact with him and yet they still don't know his exact location. What the hell is going on?

Also, is it strange of me to wonder why that last article had all the bollocks about ghost stories in it? It's not like they're trying to serve a zombie papers, or anything that makes those sentences at all relevant.

[aerius]

I had no idea it was even possible to disappear like this anymore. I mean, if he'd fled to Argentina or Libya or something, fair enough, but he's apparently still in the US, officials have (supposedly) had contact with him and yet they still don't know his exact location. What the hell is going on?

Seriously, it's like the whole thing is being run by a real life Chief Wiggum.
Bumbling cops are funny in cartoons & TV shows, not so much in real life.

[Rogue 9]

There's apparently no warrant out for his arrest; that's not the cops' fault. They can't just haul him in without authorization unless they catch him committing a crime.

[aerius]

Yeah, but given that the guy's already vanished once before they served him his papers, you'd think that the cops keep some kind of surveillance on him in case he tries to vanish again. Which he did.

[Jalinth]

I would just love to know how in the seven hells they managed to let him go to ground. Most police operations would have him being nicked at the same time as the offices being raided, surely?

He hasn't been charged criminally yet, so police weren't involved. The FBI finally found him just to serve papers but he is still free.