So the politicians in DC on both sides took money from fraudster Allen Stanford?

[originalpckelly]

And we're to believe that didn't keep him being investigated by the SEC, right?

:eyes:

I mean just because he was running an obviously fraudulent network of financial scams, doesn't mean they should have brought him down before it went to the level of 9 fucking billion dollars, now does it?

I have a feeling Standford's tentacles may be the starting point of the end for the American Empire's credibility with its people.

Yeah, yeah, we believe you guys, he didn't do anything to woo you and you didn't like thousands of dollars he heaped on you, and none of you intervened on his behalf with the SEC, right? :rofl:

You pieces of shit must think we're as stupid as you are.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/sir-allen-stanford/4732134/Sir-Allen-Stanford-US-government-has-questions-to-answer-over-alleged-fraud.html

[Frustratedlady]

1. I wonder if this is one of the crooks that Markopolus (sp?) guy said he was going to expose?

Remember? He was going to tell someone other than the SEC, as he'd given up on them, but he didn't name names. He said there were quite a few he'd found, but he only mentioned one he was going to expose. That was the day after the hearing.

He's kind of disappeared off the map.

[originalpckelly]

3. Yes, I wonder why.

I have a feeling this is going to be a very large political scandal. It's like Abramoff, only it reaches to the President and Senator McCain. Both of them were the subject of attempted buying off. But Stanford was at the DNC, which is not going to look good, even if there's nothing there, it looks so crooked.

They've even got video of him meeting with Nancy Pelosi.

[Frustratedlady]

4. Oh, great! I have to admire Biden even more...

for refusing to get involved in the stock market to avoid any conflict of interest. I know, people will yell that he's owned by the CC world, but I haven't seen much evidence of that.

What's this about the DNC?

[originalpckelly]

6. Yeah, people just don't get it, it shows that they were both still taking money...

from people now known to be crooks. How many other big donations did executives give to last year's campaign?

Kucinich says our government has splainin' do:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/sir-allen-stanford/4732134/Sir-Allen-Stanford-US-government-has-questions-to-answer-over-alleged-fraud.html

[originalpckelly]

7. And doesn't this show he managed to buy access with politicians at the DNC?

This just looks so bad. I bet he was at the RNC too, though it hasn't been reported so far.

[originalpckelly]

2. Oh and by the way, McCain AND Obama took the money.

This fucking weasel was even let into the DNC last year in August!

McCain is the one who wrote the campaign finance reform law, and Obama is supposed to have been different. But you know what folks? They're both full of shit, because what they're doing is participating in money laundering. Instead of overtly receiving money from this man's PAC, they took money from him personally. That way in the campaigns they could seem like they were all high and mighty, because they didn't take PAC money.

Holy shit, I knew this was going on in House and Senate races, but not in Presidential races.

This is a pattern of behavior I've seen tons of times before.

[originalpckelly]

5. OK, so here's a recap: Obama says he takes no money from PACs...

giving the impression that he's not taking crooked money, but takes $32,000 from this crook.

McCain, who's an alleged crusader for campaign finance reform, the guy who wrote the law, took $28,000 from this crook.

In other words, Stanford gave money to both sides, and it looks like he was trying to buy off both campaigns.

Even if you can't prove the buying off, it makes Obama's promise to take no PAC donations look hollow, because he was taking money from executives and other assorted rich motherfuckers personally. As we all know, a corporation is not really the people own it/run it. It's this mystical thing that's like a person. So when you take money from the people who run a corporation, it's not like taking PAC money, because it's only from the people who run it, and their names weren't Stanford Financial Group, which is what the PAC would be named.

Makes sense to me.

[Blue_Tires]

8. if Stanford is really that deep into it

he'll only get a slap on the wrist, as long as he doesn't name names (especially the drug connections)

[originalpckelly]

9. He can't help it, the shit is all public information.

The Federal Elections Commission keeps a database of campaign contributions that's open to the public, just go search for Allen Stanford and you'll find people who took money from him. And what's really a riot is that both sides are in it, so this can't be used as a political football by one side against the other. It shows how both sides are crooked.

I'm pretty sure that Kucinich didn't take money from Stanford though, so we can hopefully have a little more faith in him. He's already starting to talk about it.

[originalpckelly]

10. I just did it, and what I found so far...

is that this guy has been greasing the wheels for a while.

He gave money to Tom Delay, which is not surprising because we all know he's a crook.

He also gave money to...Christopher Dodd, as far back as 2002/2003.

He even gave money to Senator Sarbanes! You know, that accounting reform bill, Sarbanes-Oxley? The anti-Enron fraud bill? He took money!

The shit is hitting the fan.

His employees appear to have given to some of the same people, did he force them to give?

You have to go here:
http://fec.gov/finance/disclosure/advindsea.shtml

Then type "Stanford Financial Group" in the occupation box. You'll find that Stanford and his high executives donated to the same people. This is a pattern that has happened before in the Duke Cunningham scandal.

Represenative Meeks took money from Stanford and his executives.

[Blue_Tires]

12. the 'official' campaign contributions are one thing

but the really dirty money and the people linked to it will be much harder to find...

[originalpckelly]

15. In the Duke Cunningham scandal...

you could go through this database and compare it to the indictments, and you would see donations that were bribes. We should start making a time line of major legislation concerning his industry, how the people who took the donations voted, and see if we can't detect a pattern.

Bob Ney took money from him too, hey it looks like some of the same old characters from Abramoff are involved in this! :rofl: It's like Cheers for political corruption.

[stillcool]

11. Jeeze..look at all those corrupt athletes!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/sir-allen-stanford/

[originalpckelly]

13. Yeah, as we all know, athletes make the laws that regulate his company.

:eyes:

That's an extremely poor attempt to deflect. Wake the fuck up, these people were on the take from this crook.

[stillcool]

18. yeah...it's weird how politicians..

take contributions from individuals, isn't it?

[originalpckelly]

21. People in management. Not at the bottom, but management.

People with titles like CEO, COO, CFO, and President. Those are management donations, what's a Democrat doing taking money from these people?

[stillcool]

34. Individuals in management can't contribute?

[Bonhomme Richard]

14. Hold on a minute. Do we know that they knew he was dirty.....

at the time the money was given?
I don't know but just asking the question before everyone flies off the handle.

[originalpckelly]

16. Does it matter? Obama said he wasn't taking PAC money, but we know...

that even if the money wasn't dirty, he was taking donations from executives/CEOs and so were other Democrats and Republicans.

But Obama made a big stink about not taking PAC money. OK, so he didn't take money from PACs, but he took money from the people who donate to the PACs, that's a big difference. :eyes:

And that's assuming there is nothing seedy going on, but from what I'm looking at, the crooks associated with Abramoff also took money from this guy. Bob Ney, Tom Delay, and I'm sure I'm going to find more.

[Bonhomme Richard]

33. I'm a "executives/CEOs" and I gave money to Obama.

As small as I am, by your logic, they should have vetted me before accepting the money or maybe I shouldn't have given him money at all.
I think it's a stretch to try to tie Obama to this guy in some nefarious way and get all bent out of shape when there is zero proof he did anything wrong.

[malaise]

25. They should have known

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5089765

[burythehatchet]

17. both sides? Both sides of what? The shit sandwich that I'm fed everyday?

[originalpckelly]

19. No, the shit sandwhich with red and blue jelly on it.

This guy donated to Bob Ney and Tom Delay, so did his fellow executives, need I say more? They almost certainly had to be in on the scheme.

[burythehatchet]

20. Of course they are. Cornyn as well. The SEC wouldn't touch him.

He spent the last couple of days IN DC for god sakes. Gee, I wonder why.

[originalpckelly]

22. Cornyn is on the list of donations.

It's really weird, they all donated to the same exact people. Ney got tons of money from this guys' managers. Now we know that that guy was a crook and on the take from Abramoff, so it suggests that perhaps he's on the take from this guy. If Ney was on the take, what does that mean for the others who appear in the list? Delay is on the list of people who received contributions as well.

[malaise]

26. Cornyn isn't even returning his cache

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/mad-rush-in-dc-to-give-back-stanfords-money-except-cornyn-sessions.php

[originalpckelly]

27. What a douchebag.

He's going to either be forced to do it by public opinion, or he's going down in the next election.

[malaise]

28. Latest link

These crooks sure enjoy their lifestyle

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOm.ThdgS0YI&refer=home

[originalpckelly]

29. Indeed they did. I could live for years off of 272,000! And he made that a month!

:wow:

That really pisses me off!

[malaise]

30. I don't care how people live as long as their

grand lifestyle isn't being maintained by robbing others.

[originalpckelly]

23. Bill Nelson (FL) is on the list of donations. He seems to have taken TONS of money...

from this guy and his highest managers, as well as lots of unlabeled employees of the Stanford Group. Usually, if a person is in the high management of a company they will brag about it in a way, and put it down in the employer identification in the donation form.

So you can go to this database:
http://fec.gov/finance/disclosure/advindsea.shtml

And type in Stanford Financial Group, and just look for Stanford Financial Group/CEO or some other typical management title. Notice how even the lower employees in the organization often donated to the same exact guys? Isn't that weird?

Well in the Duke Cunningham scandal, it turns out that the CEO of one of the companies involved held a "fundraiser" and basically sock-puppeted donations through all of his employees, to get around the limits that an individual can donate to a single campaign, which is $2300 for the donations in this database. There is no real proof of that, but doesn't it look odd that the donations from the generic "Stanford Financial Group" employees all happened right around the same time as the executives?

[originalpckelly]

24. It looks like they had a fundraiser of some kind for Nelson on 10/27/06...

or 10/28/06, because a lot of the unmarked donations to nelson in 2006, happened on those two days. Just limit the state to FL, when going through the advanced donation option in the above link.

[FarCenter]

31. He was more likely protected by the DEA, CIA

http://www2.canada.com/news/world/rogue+billionaire+faces+massive+fraud+charges/1307586/story.html?id=1307586

In an interview on Thursday, Stanford's father, James, told Reuters that in the late 1990s, a Mexican customer of Stanford put $3 million into the bank for investment purposes. He said DEA agents then approached Allen Stanford and said the money was from a Mexican drug cartel and had been laundered several times.

James Stanford said that Allen told the board about this, and that he had "refunded" the money to the U.S. Treasury. "Allen worked with them, hand in glove," the elder Stanford said.

---

This most likely led to undercover cooperation with the DEA and other agencies.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA were using his firm to funnel money to the Venezuelan opposition to Chavez.

Note that the Dallas SEC office has stated that they stopped an investigation due to a request from another government agency.

[originalpckelly]

32. While I don't like Chavez, I wouldn't be surprised if you're right.

I think that this thing probably does involve the drug king pins. I mean doesn't it make sense that if these drug cartels are used to breaking the law by killing people either with guns or with their drugs, that political bribery would be small potatoes to them?

We the people may have stumbled on to something like Iran-Contra, only time will tell.