Texas Securities Regulators Found Evidence of Potential Money Laundering Involving Stanford Ten Years Ago
February 21st, 2009The Texas authorities called in the FBI and SEC… which did nothing.
What you have here is a long running U.S. Intelligence operation that became so large and sloppy that it finally blew up.
Oh yeah, I wonder what went on in the Bogota, Colombia office…
Via: Houston Chronicle:
The SEC only has the authority to pursue civil actions, leaving the decision to pursue criminal charges to the Justice Department and FBI. An SEC spokesman indicated that the FBI was examining documents and other materials seized in the SEC’s fraud probe.
“We are certainly in contact with the SEC and we are aware of their investigation but we are not going to discuss any ongoing matters,” said FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap.
Stanford, a once high-flying businessman whose investment firm’s affiliates stretch from Bogota, Colombia, to Quito, Ecuador, has denied having ties to foreign drug barons and never has been charged with a crime related to his banking. In 1999, Stanford willingly turned over the $3 million from his bank after federal agents found it had come from a drug cartel.
In fact, at the time, Stanford’s cooperation won him praise from authorities who said he had not intentionally accepted drug money.
Around the same time, however, Texas securities regulators found evidence of potential money laundering involving Stanford, an official said Friday in Austin. But, because the activity involved offshore banks, it was referred to the FBI and SEC.
“Why it took 10 years for the feds to move on it, I cannot answer,” Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford told the Senate Finance Committee in Austin. Later, she added, “We worked with the FBI and the SEC and basically gave them the case. We told them what we’d seen and they were going to run with it.”
