[ReverseEngineer]

The bank says it has more than 30,000 investors and $8.5 billion in assets; it says the larger group of which it is a part manages over $51 billion in assets. A spokesman for parent company Stanford Financial Group, based in Houston and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, said depositors may withdraw funds in accordance with the terms of their accounts.

WSJ

Yes, the next big Bankster Ripoff Artist operating this time from an offshore Antigua Bank is being investigated by the Feds.

One depositor in Houston said he tried to redeem his CDs worth roughly $500,000 Friday morning after reading newspaper articles about the investigation into Mr. Stanford's operations. The rate on his CDs was 8.25%, he said. His advisor told him he couldn't redeem them for two months.

"Ironically, I thought it was one of the more safe investments," he said. "My fear is that some investors are being allowed to redeem CDs while others are not. I am trying to get additional information about the bank and my redemption request, but have been unsuccessful so far."

Atlanta lawyer James A. Dunlap Jr. said he has been advising a retired woman in Texas who invested about $250,000 in Stanford Bank CDs. "She has been advised she can't withdraw it," Mr. Dunlap said. "She was just told that she can't withdraw it now, but they are working to try to raise funds to be able to make a redemption good."

Kiss your money goodbye folks, Stanford spent it on gold plated helicopters and $20M Cricket Matches. $51B involved through the whole works, this could be as big as Bernie. Should be hearing more sob stories of more littel Piglets bilked of their life savings by a real Pigman.

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[shady28]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 66321.html

Florida accountant Bob Parrish said that last year some Florida clients who came to him for tax preparation had a collective $500,000 in Stanford International Bank. Parrish looked into it because the offshore institution lacks federal deposit insurance that protects U.S. bank deposits.



Stupid is as stupid does...
I have no sympathy for someone who invests in an offshore "bank" to get high "returns" in exchange for lack of oversight and no FDIC protection. This is an investment that has simply failed, no different from someone who had put $500k into this :

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GM#c ... =undefined

[Cid_Yama]

{topic merged by moderator}

US Marshals just raided his offices in Houston. This time it's Texas Republicans taken to the cleaners. CNBC says estimates are at 51 billion overall just edging out Madoff.
link

SEC charges

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2009/2009-26.htm

[Ayoob]

They might be bigger, but Madoff is in a special category all his own.

[ReverseEngineer]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6266321.html

Florida accountant Bob Parrish said that last year some Florida clients who came to him for tax preparation had a collective $500,000 in Stanford International Bank. Parrish looked into it because the offshore institution lacks federal deposit insurance that protects U.S. bank deposits.



Stupid is as stupid does...
I have no sympathy for someone who invests in an offshore "bank" to get high "returns" in exchange for lack of oversight and no FDIC protection. This is an investment that has simply failed, no different from someone who had put $500k into this :

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GM#c ... =undefined

Far as I know, no investment vehicles have FDIC protection, its strictly for bank accounts up to $250K, although I think they recently added some money market accounts to this scheme.

Anyhow, I don't think it makes much difference if the bank or brokerage is in Antigua or on Wall Street, Bernie of course was right here at home scamming right under the thumb of the SEC. Isn;t it interesting how all these scams are only coming to light as the house of cards falls?

Anyhow, this is systemic to the entire capitalist system, these fellows aren't different then your typical broker, they are just bigger and were more unscrupulous in luring in the low hanging fruit. Stanford isn't the last one of these guys whose offices will be raided by US Marshalls. You have to remember in many cases these guys were handling the money of people who control the strings of power in Washington, through the FBI and the CIA.

These guys are going to be hung out to dry, but really they still are not the biggest players. When the US Marshalls raid the Rockefeller compound and the Bush Ranch, then we will be getting somewhere.

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[smallpoxgirl]

Wow! That's gotta be bad for hedge funds and good for t-bills. Anybody with money in a hedge fund has got to be questioning their sanity about now.

[ReverseEngineer]

It appears to me that Stanford was running a huge money laundering scheme for South American Drug Dealers:

The bank has drawn federal scrutiny before. In 1999 Stanford handed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers a $3.1 million cashier’s check from the bank after investigators found that a major drug trafficking ring in Mexico had used the bank to stash or launder money. At the time Stanford told the Los Angeles Times that the payment “was the right thing to do morally, and it’s the legal thing to do.”

The SEC has subpoenaed information about Stanford’s U.S. brokerage operations from two former financial advisers who allege in a Harris County lawsuit that they were forced out because they didn’t want to participate in unethical or illegal business practices at the firm.

Others also have sued after leaving the firm. In a 2006 lawsuit filed in state court in Miami, Lawrence De Maria, a one-time public relations writer for Stanford, alleged he was fired for asking questions about practices at the company.

De Maria alleged among other things that a majority of deposits in the Antigua bank came from South Americans seeking to hide money and that Stanford Financial and Allen Stanford made cash payments to Antigua politicians.

Houston Chronicle

If in fact Stanford has managed to misappropriate the hard earned money of Scarface, he better HOPE the FBI takes him into custody. These fellows aren't quite like Jewish Charities that go down quietly moaning about their losses. I wouldn't be surprised to see a bloodbath on the courthouse steps when he is arraigned.

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[Armageddon]

I have heard Madoff's is closer to 100 billion.

[dohboi]

Mods, please merge the Stanford threads.

One has to wonder how many of these mega-scams orchestrated by individuals are out there.

[ReverseEngineer]

Stanford paid his Cricket Stars quite well:

The banker is a backer of Twenty20 cricket, a shortened form of the sport played over about three hours. Last June, he landed in a helicopter at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London to announce an annual Twenty20 series of matches between England’s national team and the Stanford Superstars, a team of West Indies players, for a winner-takes-all prize of $20 million. Stanford plucked dollar bills from a crate he brought with him to illustrate the amount of money on offer.

The game, played in November at the Stanford Cricket Ground, near the banker’s home in Antigua, was won by the West Indies team. The 11 players collected $1 million each. The rest of the money was distributed between the substitutes and the West Indies Cricket Board, the sport’s governing body in the region.

Besides Cricket, it appears Golf & Polo are going to take a sponsorship hit here:

Stanford Group sponsors other sports events, including the Stanford St. Jude Championship, a PGA tour golf tournament in Memphis, Tennessee, and Stanford Field, a polo championship at the International Polo Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

I wonder if Tiger Woods ever won any of his money?

You wonder why I call them Pigmen? Its enough to make you PUKE.

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[FireJack]

Well at least he blew a bunch of drug cartels money. Wonder if this will become big news or not.

[shady28]

Far as I know, no investment vehicles have FDIC protection, its strictly for bank accounts up to $250K, although I think they recently added some money market accounts to this scheme.

The offshore bank was selling CDs. CDs in FDIC insured onshore banks are FDIC insured.

[big_rc]

The lights have come on and the roaches are starting to scramble.

Expect some bloodletting if these numbers are as big as they say they are. One thing rich people do not like being is poor so I fully expect some heads to roll as a consequence (either through legal or extra-legal means).

[ReverseEngineer]

Unlike Bernie Madoff, who basically turned himself in and then was put nicely under House Arrest in his Penthouse, our wonderful Keystone Cops have no idea where R. Allen is at the moment.

The SEC said yesterday that Stanford’s whereabouts weren’t known. Federal officials were unable to say if Stanford has retained a lawyer or been served with SEC-requested court orders freezing his personal assets and those of his companies.

Will they turn him up, or is he hanging out with Osama bin Ladin? Has he disappeared of his own volition, or did Scarface already whack him?

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