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The brash, 58-year-old financier’s whereabouts remained unclear on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of operating a fraud centered on the sale of certificates of deposit from his Antiguan affiliate, Stanford International Bank Ltd (SIB).

The scheme has drawn comparisons with the alleged $50 billion fraud by Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff.

Two police officers stood watch at the Bank of Antigua as at least 600 people stood in a line stretching around a street corner, despite assurances from regional monetary authorities that the bank had sufficient reserves.

“I’m worried and I’d like to get my money out,” said Andrea Lamar, 28, who joined the line with a friend on a street popular with tourists in the state capital, St. John’s.

Bank of Antigua, with three branches in the tiny twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda, is part of Stanford’s sprawling global business interests but is separate from SIB, the offshore affiliate at the heart of fraud charges lodged by U.S. regulators.

The six-nation Eastern Caribbean Central Bank posted a statement at Bank of Antigua saying many depositors had started to withdraw funds, “causing some anxiety,” but that the bank had sufficient reserves.

“If individuals persist in rushing to the bank in a panic, they will precipitate the very situation that we are all trying to avoid,” the statement said.

Antigua’s prime minister, Baldwin Spencer, said in a televised address to the nation late Tuesday that the charges against Stanford could have “catastrophic” consequences for the nation, but he urged the public not to panic.

A similar scene played out in Caracas, where hundreds of Venezuelans lined up to pull their money out of Stanford’s offices. Local officials tried to ease concerns.

“We can say in good faith that Stanford Bank Venezuela is a healthy bank without any type of problem to announce,” said Edgar Hernandez Behrens, the head of Venezuela’s banking regulator, Sudeban.

A Venezuelan official estimated that people in that country have invested about $2.5 billion in Stanford.

In a civil complaint, the SEC said SIB sold $8 billion in certificates of deposit “by promising high return rates that exceed those available through true certificates of deposits offered by traditional banks.”

“We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world,” said Rose Romero, regional director of the SEC’s office in Fort Worth, Texas.