Venezuela government seizes failed Stanford Bank

[seafan]

Source: Forbes (AP)

Venezuela's government is seizing a failed bank controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford after panicked investors withdrew at least $26.5 million on news of fraud charges against him, the finance minister said Thursday.
Stanford Bank SA will immediately be put up for sale and the government will back deposits, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said.

.....

The board asked regulators for government help late Tuesday, suggesting "an open intervention," including the possibility of the government or a state-run bank depositing funds to back deposits, Hugo Faria, one of the bank's directors told The Associated Press.

The decision to intervene follows a run on the local equivalent of $26.5 million, about 12 percent of the bank's Venezuelan deposits early this week, according to the country's banking superintendency.
The bank, which said it has 14 branches and 15,000 clients in Venezuela, reported total deposits of 473 million bolivars, or $220 million, last week.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/02/19/ap6071199.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Due to the Chavez government's excellent management of Venezuela's economy

and resources, Venezuela has $40 billion in international cash reserves with which to help cushion Venezuelans and others* from the Bushwhacks' Financial 9/11. This is one example of why honest, fair and transparent election systems--such as they have in Venezuela, and such as we don't have here--are so important. We have suffered an unelected junta over the last eight years, which engaged in mindboggling theft of government coffers, as well as deregulation of every big corporate looter and plunderer who could do us harm--whether credit card usurers, mortgage 'derivative' buyers or Exxon Mobil--and who furthermore larded the super-rich with multiple tax cuts, while pouring a trillion of our tax dollars into a corporate resource war, and slaughtering a million people to get their oil. During the same time period, the people of Venezuela have had an honestly elected president and national assembly, with a mandate to protect the peoples' interests, and this is one of the things that the Chavez government did to fulfill that mandate--they managed the peoples' money well, and fought hard against entities like Exxon Mobil to get Venezuelans a better deal on their oil revenues--and did so at considerable personal risk for Chavez and other members of his government, considering the Bushwhacks' murderous intentions.

We may have a good president now that it's probably too late to save us from Great Depression II. And even with a good president, our nearly 100% non-transparent voting system, run on 'TRADE SECRET' code, owned and controlled by Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, means that our president's hands are tied in many ways--from deals he has had to make--and he can easily be Diebolded out of office in 2012, if he dares any fundamental reform. And who knows what it means as to Congress? I think half of them were not really elected, and are directly beholden to the corpo/fascists who put them in power.

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*(In this case, investors in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in addition to Venezuelans.)

[bemildred]

2. Venezuela asks US financial authorities for explanation about Stanford Bank

Venezuela asked US financial officials for information about the real status of Stanford Bank International, a financial institution marred by a huge fraud scandal, said on Wednesday Venezuelan Finance Minister Alí Rodríguez.

"A lot of people are wondering about what we are going to do with Stanford Bank in Venezuela. We are investigating the effects in Venezuela of the problems hitting the parent company. At the same time, we have asked US authorities for information about the real situation," Rodríguez said, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, as reported by AFP.

Rodríguez added that the Venezuelan financial system is "secure and stable" and stressed that unlike other countries the South American country has not been affected by the collapse of banks, thanks to the "exchange control, which has been so criticized by opposition pundits."

In his view, the exchange control regime is a "breast wall to avoid destabilizing financial flows, such as the problem recorded at Antigua-based Stanford Bank International."

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/02/19/en_eco_esp_venezuela-asks-us-fi_19A2232169.shtml