Well lookie lookie - I knew this was not for real

[malaise]

For well over a year I've been asking DUers for more information on Allen Stanford (the Texan who was involved with West Indies cricket and who financed the million dollar tournament with the English cricket team). Shortly after the Venezuelans started investigating his bank, he fired persons involved in the tournament and word is that's the end of that, but look what showed up in Salon.com.
Do we have another ponzi here?

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/
<snip>
Since the Madoff affair, there have been quite a number of smaller cases discovered and in Venezuela it gave rise to fairly entertaining blog in Spanish called Venepiramides, which has been covering this subject in detail.

Then last week, Veneconomia, in its monthly issue (Which I collaborate with), carried an article called Duck Tales, (in Spanish here) written by our friend and sometimes reader Alex Dalmady in which Alex analyzes Stanford International Bank (SIB), an Antigua'based financial institution with some US$ 8 billion in deposits mostly from Latin America and an estimated US$ 3 billion from Venezuelans. Another blog in English, Caracas Gringo, has already reviewed most of Alex’ findings.

What Alex does in a very entertaining style, is to ask what you should ask yourself if you are trying to find a “Financial Duck”, that is, a financial institution which like Madoff, it’s too good to be true, nobody can match what it does, like the Madoff pyramid it is run by a very small group of people and with no single institution having the incentives to uncover the fraud.

After analyzing SIB, Dalmady concludes that SIB has feathers, quacks, waddles and has webbed feet. That is, all of the tests that Dalmady could come up with, point to SIB looking a lot like a financial duck and people should be more careful of not placing their money with something that looks like a duck.

From the link
http://caracasgringo.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/stanford-international-bank-antiguas-bernie-madoff/
<snip>
US-based financial analyst Alex Dalmady ([e-mail]) recently analyzed for Caracas-based VenEconomy Monthly the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, which is owned by Texas billionaire Sir (knighted by Antigua, not the Queen) Allen Stanford (net worth $2.2 billion, according to Forbes).

VenEconomy Monthly has been breaking major economic and financial stories about Venezuela for nearly 25 years, and Dalmady has long been recognized as one of Venezuela’s and South Florida’s most respected and authoritative financial analysts.

Without saying so directly, Dalmady concludes that SIB, which reportedly is owned by the same Stanford Group which operates a commercial bank in Venezuela, could be a financial house of cards - the offshore investment banking equivalent of a balsa wood house on stilts in Hurricane Alley.
------------

gr.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. So another $11 Billion disappeared? What a mess. n/t

[malaise]

2. Another link

http://www.stanford2020.com/

http://www.stanford2020.com/news_viewpress.php?release=344
<snip>
Stanford 20/20 LLC announces that, as is appropriate, a full review of the 2008 Stanford 20/20 cricket programme is being undertaken in light of the well publicised contractual issues with the West Indies Cricket Board which arose prior to the start of the Stanford Super Series.

The Stanford 20/20 Board was dissolved on Monday December 15th pending the review and Sir Allen Stanford personally thanked each of the legends of West Indies cricket for their involvement, guidance and counsel over the past three years. The Board has been integral to Stanford 20/20's commitment to the development of West Indies cricket and the board members continue to play an important role in the review process.

"Stanford 20/20 and the efforts of its board have reinvigorated widespread interest in the game throughout the Caribbean and have enhanced the image of West Indies cricket globally. The board has been instrumental in developing a whole new fan base in the region," said Sir Allen.

Contrary to some recent negative press speculation, in relation to Stanford's broader involvement with cricket and specifically the future of the Stanford 20/20 for 20, the Quadrangular Tournament at Lords and the English Premier League, Sir Allen reaffirmed his desire to continue to work with the England and Wales Cricket Board and discussions are currently ongoing between Stanford 20/20 LLC and the ECB.

Sir Allen confirmed that it was his intention to announce the programme for 2009 and beyond by the end of January 2009.
---------------
Well today is February 10th and not a word from Stanford.

[Wiley50]

3. Oh dear! Something just doesn't seem cricket. n/t

[malaise]

4. I knew from day one

Wash, wash was my first inclination.

[starroute]

5. Here's what I have on Stanford

Antigua is also of interest -- there's been all sorts of dirty stuff going on there, though probably more in the 90's than now. Swiss American Bank and Swiss American National Bank (both owned by the deeply dubious Bruce Rappaport), the Bank of New York-Inter-Maritime (tied to both Rappaport and the Russian Mafia), the European Union Bank (Russians again -- Khodorkovsky and a partner), and suggestions of Russian organized crime colluding with Latin American drug cartels.

I don't seem to have anything that ties Stanford in with the Russian stuff -- and Antigua was certainly loose enough to attract a variety of money-launderers -- but this is still extremely interesting.


http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/issues/nonprofit/articles.cfm?ID=7188

In September 1999 the Clinton Administration first unveiled its National Money Laundering Strategy, aimed at hampering the finances of illegal gambling, drug smuggling and terrorism networks.

Two months later, Stanford Financial Group, a Houston-based company, became active in federal politics for the first time. Stanford Financial would later be identified as one of the institutions that worked hardest to thwart money-laundering legislation, H.R. 3886 and S. 2972. Stanford Financial appears to have used campaign contributions, including large donations to 527 groups, as a key part of its strategy.

At the center of the story stands R. Allen Stanford, the CEO of Stanford Financial Group. Stanford has dual citizenship in the United States and Antigua - a 100-square mile Caribbean island with about 67,000 people, more than 50 off-shore banks, and a reputation as a money-laundering haven. His Stanford International Bank Ltd. is Antigua's largest financial institution with more than $680 million in assets. The parent company, Houston-based Stanford Financial Group, is a privately held financial services firm with more than $14 billion in assets.

In late November 1999, with the Clinton Administration's crackdown on money-laundering under way, Stanford hired one of Washington, D.C.'s most respected lobbying firms, Verner Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand. Suddenly, in February 2000, Stanford Financial Group - which had never made a federal campaign contribution before - started pouring money into Republican and Democratic party committees.

[malaise]

6. He was also a Bush supporter

I heard rumors about the money-laundering.

Thanks for the link

[starroute]

7. There's also a Jack Abramoff/Greenberg Traurig connection

I used to joke a few years back that no scandal was complete without a Jack Abramoff connection -- and sure enough, it turns out that Greenberg Traurig represented Stanford back in 2001 -- and also that Stanford donated heavily to Abramoff's pals Tom DeLay and Bob Ney:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a.0EEBl4oTSA&refer=us

May 17, 2006

The U.S. advised financial institutions to be suspicious of transactions with Antigua banks, a warning that was lifted in August 2001 after Antigua took steps to fight money laundering. The warning didn't specifically mention Stanford Financial's bank. Stanford Financial says Allen Stanford "was asked to serve in an advisory capacity to the government of Antigua and Barbuda" and hired a "top-notch team of former U.S. legal and regulatory professionals" that helped that country adopt anti- money-laundering rules. That team included several lawyers from the Miami offices of Greenberg Traurig LLP, which represented Stanford Financial at the time.

Since then, Stanford Financial's U.S. business has surged, helped by a team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that sells the Antiguan CDs to affluent Americans such as doctors. The company says the team added about $17 million in new deposits in 2003, $150 million in 2004 and had a goal of $250 million for last year, according to a 2004 company video.

In Washington, meanwhile, the company gained additional cachet last year by acquiring Charles Schwab & Co.'s Washington research team, now called Stanford Washington Research Group. The group employs former Federal Reserve Governor Lyle Gramley as senior economic adviser. In the past six years, Stanford Financial and its employees have made more than $2 million in donations to U.S. political candidates and parties, according to the Federal Election Commission and congressional and Internal Revenue Service records.

Stanford gives to both Democrats and Republicans. Among its top beneficiaries have been former Senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who left office in 2003 amid ethics allegations, and Republican Representatives Tom DeLay of Texas, who is resigning from Congress next month after having been indicted in a Texas election-fundraising case, and Bob Ney of Ohio, who's under investigation in the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Stanford Financial or its employees have contributed to the legal defense funds of the three lawmakers.