Bank accused of fraud gave big bucks to Congress

[DrDeke]

With a financial crisis that President Obama warns could lead to catastrophe for this nation one would think policitians would be quick to return any money that could be viewed as having anything to do with the financial shenanigans that brought about this mess in the first place.

Last year, employees of Stanford Financial Group, whose founder billionaire, Sir. Robert Allen Stanford, has been charged with “massive, ongoing fraud” by the Security and Exchange Commission, gave more than $100,000 in campaign contributions to Congress at the end of 2008.

It is not yet known how many Congress members will be returning those contributions. Requests for comment from RawStory on Tuesday to a number of Congressional offices have yet to be returned. This could mean that either Democrats and Republicans are ducking the question or they need more time to weigh the pluses and minuses of returning the donations.

At least one senator, Bill Nelson, will likely be returning the campaign contributions. Said Nelson through his spokesman Dan McLaughlin to The Orlando Sentinel, "Based on the fact that Mr. Stanford has been indicted in a fraud case, I will give to charity any campaign contributions from him or his employees."

Stanford was charged by securities regulators on Tuesday, according to The Financial Times with “massive, ongoing fraud” operated through his Antigua-based offshore bank.

The Stanford Financial Group Company Employees Political Action Committee gave $128,000 to both Republican and Democratic campaign committees in 2008, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.

Among the highlights of the many contributions are $5,000 to the campaign of House Minority Leader John Boehner and $3,000 to the campaign of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Asked by RawStory if Rep. Boehner would be returning his campaign contributions from the PAC, Michael Steele, press secretary for Boehner said, “This is the first I’m hearing of it. We’ll find out.”

The large bulk of the contributions came in the latter half of 2008, not coincidentally when Congress was considering passage of the controversial $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. On a single day, Oct. 10, $61,700 was contributed by the STAN-PAC. Seven days earlier President George W. Bush had signed the financial systems bailout into law.

Calls on the same matter to Reid’s office and to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee also went unreturned.

Since 2000, Robert Allen Stanford, his wife and company gave $2.2 million in political contributions – $1.7 million to Democratic candidates and committees – according to a review by Politico of Federal Election Commission records.


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