FBI Finds Allen Stanford in Virginia
February 20th, 2009Not Langley, Virginia.
The FBI didn’t arrest him.
Via: Reuters:
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused of an $8 billion fraud that spooked investors around the world, was found in Virginia on Thursday and FBI agents served him with a complaint from U.S. regulators.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had acted at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and that Stanford had not been arrested. A law enforcement official said Stanford was making arrangements to surrender his passport.
The whereabouts of jet-setting, 58-year-old Stanford had been the subject of intense speculation since he failed to respond to a subpoena from the SEC to answer questions about his company’s operations.
Stanford has homes in the United States and the Caribbean.
The SEC filed civil charges in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday against Stanford, two colleagues and three Stanford companies, accusing them of a “massive ongoing fraud”.
Earlier this week, U.S. federal agents raided Stanford Group Co offices in Miami, Houston and other U.S. cities.
Five Latin American countries have acted against Stanford businesses, and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is monitoring a possible U.K. link after media reports that Stanford’s books were audited in Britain.
Stanford was found in the area of Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 50 miles south of Washington, D.C.
…
Antigua has faced U.S. scrutiny in the past for alleged money laundering activities and operations by suspected Russian “shell” banks.
Jonathan Winer, a Washington lawyer and former State Department official in the Clinton administration, said that following a U.S. warning to Antigua in the late 1990s, consultants and lawyers working for Stanford took control of records of Antigua’s bank regulatory agency “to carry out a cleanup” of the suspect banks.
The local bank regulator objected, as did the U.S. government, Winer said. “The conflict of interest that we felt existed with using Mr. Stanford and his people to clean up the banking system was unique … it was bizarre and inappropriate.”
“One of the results of all this was that Antigua was put on a watch list.”
In response, Antigua implemented banking reforms requested by the United States, and the sanctions were lifted in 2001.
I guess when they say the financial system was a “house of cards,” Stanford would be one of the cards. It seems so interesting that as the financial system is in its death throes, so many more of the “cards” are going to be exposed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/worldbusiness/20ubs.html?hp
Perhaps 50,000? Imagine the luminaries that will be on that list!!!
Avoiding taxes. Hmph. I was audited by the IRS back in the 70’s for tips I didn’t claim as a cocktail waitress. I went to court rather than settle and awaiting the judge’s verdict added thousands (about $2k) of dollars in interest and penalties when I had none.
I’m sorry I’m laughing at all these people being caught by their own malfeasance. Actually I’m not. I hope that judge whats-his-name is on the list too. How do you like it, sir? Owing back taxes. Yessirree. Give people enough rope they hang themselves.