Good article on the Stanford structure..The fractal Stanford

[Joanne98]

Part of the problem for anyone trying to understand the Stanford controversy is the complexity of the Stanford companies themselves.

Stanford Financial is really a collection of independent companies; independent insofar as there is no group company of which the individual business are subsidaries; though dependent insofar as they are all owned by one man - Sir Allen Stanford.

So here at FT Alphaville we’ve undertaken to sketch (and we stress sketch, as the below is by no means definitive) a hopefully illuminating schematic of the Stanford universe.
______

Stanford Financial operates as the effective “parent” company, though it is only really a brand fascia for the agglomerated group. It has an office in Houston, where the bulk of the Stanford enterprises are headquartered, and also a government affairs unit based in Washington.

Below/alongside Stanford Financial are a series of more “productive businesses”, the centrepiece of which - in Houston at least - could reasonably be said to be the Stanford Group Company - ostensibly a FINRA/SIPC registered investment bank, brokerage, wealth management and insurance outfit (Stanford Agency Co) . The Stanford Group Company, headquartered in Houston, has twenty five regional offices spread throughout the southern and eastern states.

The greater part of the Stanford Group Co business seems to come from channeling other Stanford companies’ businesses to clients. It is a sales business, and as the only Stanford business registered with Finra, it is also the only one through which other Stanford businesses’ securities and related products and services can be offered.

For example, the Stanford Group Company, under its wealth management operations, directs clients to the Stanford Trust Company, HQ, Baton Rouge. The Stanford Trust Co has subsidiary offices in New Zealand and Columbia. Oh, and it also owns Stanford Fiduciary Investor Services (offices, Houston, San Antonio, Miami). As far as we can see, Stanford Trust Co is an advisory outfit, offering “investment strategies and products through its affiliation with Stanford Capital Management that can allocate investments throughout global markets.”

Continued>>>
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/02/17/52540/the-fractal-stanford/