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The Daily Stanford
The developments in the Allen Stanford case are coming thick and fast. Let's get up to speed:
- ABC News reported that the FBI has been investigating whether Stanford laundered money for a Mexican drug cartel.
- Bloomberg reported that the FBI is separately investigating Stanford's fraud and seems likely to bring criminal charges. (To date, Stanford has not been criminally charged.)
- The New York Times reported that both the SEC and FINRA had investigated Stanford in recent years, and merely issued a few fines, despite the existence of "major red flags" in the words of one expert. (More on that to come.)
- Some members of Congress said they'd return donations from Stanford. But others, like GOPers John Cornyn and Pete Sessions said they'd keep the loot!
- The government of Venezuela took over a local Stanford bank.
- Latin Americans and Caribbeans scrambled to get their money out of Stanford banks.
- Former Swiss President Adolf Ogi said he would resign from the board of Stanford Financial Group.
- And maybe most worryingly, the SEC has admitted it doesn't know where Stanford is.
Josh
Zachary
Director of Enforcement at SEC recently quit. Our nation remains in extreme peril if we don't immediately fire her SEC peers.
(This guy Stanford was promising a 50 percent profit on money invested with him. Even I could smell a rat in that stew pot and the 'experts' at SEC couldn't?)
February 19, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the NY Times article, it sounds like Cornyn essentially got a free Caribbean vacation from Stanford. Maybe he's very lucky he just got reelected.
And Charlie Rangel is caught up in another one. Are his constituents asking him to go? This member of the base certainly wants him gone. He's an embarrassment.
February 19, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
If this guy makes too much trouble for really well connected people, he may end up a 'suicide' - cf Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Tim Russert, Bruce Ivans ...
Oh, tinfoil helmet alert - yes it is zany to think that all these people were murdered ... but did none of them get snuffed, not even one of them ? Their deaths sure made a great headache remedy for some big shots.
Palfrey hanged herself in her mother's garden shed ? Oh well that scandal's over. Bruce Ivans killed himself - oh well no more anthrax investigation. Russert 'dropped dead' - did no one powerful hate his guts ?
'Sir' Allen should be extra careful ... and yes, ha ha, tinfoil hat, grassy knoll ...
February 19, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unclever headline, besmirching a fine newspaper. To be fair,Josh has to promise to do the same thing when some crook named Princetonian is in the crosshairs.
February 19, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
What fine newspaper? Are you thinking of The Stanford Daily?
Surely "The Daily Stanford" is referencing "The Daily Muck" posts here at TPM.
February 19, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since Cornyn seems to be so tight with "Sir" Allen, why doesn't he ask him to turn himself into authorities--especially since Big John presumes him innocent. Meanwhile, those in the reality-based community can put two and two together (attempted purchase of one way ticket to Antigua and dropping off the face of the earth) to see that "Sir" Allen is a crook.
February 19, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush's FBI held off on arresting someone who launders money for a Mexican drug cartel, and ABC writes a story about Democrats taking political contributions.
I think that whether or not Stanford's airplanes' FAA registrations would find his planes mixed in the CIA drug smuggling planes is worth looking into.
February 19, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I copied this comment from Huffington Post because it is succinct. I do not know the author.
********
That's my take. He was accepting their money for investment but blaming the Gulf Cartel appears to be a CIA/DEA red herring. Look to either Sinaloa or Michoacan. Michoacan is the home power base of Mexican Presidente Cardenas, Bush and Rove's boy. Michoacan is the new connection for Colombian cocaine that is coming through the Michoacan plaza and they moving to either Sinaloa or across the narrow Mexican isthmus into the Gulf. Michoacan as well as Sinaloa has taken over the old Gulf Cartel's territory, save for a pocket in Monterey, Tamaolipas. This story smells of CIA/DIA disinformation. They might have well have broadcast it: Sanford is part of the CIA covert financial activity moving through the Dominican Republic, Miami, Tampa, Mobile, Memphis, Tuscaloosa, New Orleans and, yes, even Corpus Christi, Galveston and Port Arthur. They even use the oil rigs owned by the Bush family as depots. Did you guys ever hear of "Dark Alliance" and Iran-Contra? What do you think Karl Rove and Jack Abramoff wanted with Sun Cruise Lines working out of Florida, Mississippi and Alabama? Money Laundering, that's what.
-WOBailey
February 19, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two threads later, TPM reports that Stanford has hired Oliver North's old lawyer. Hmm.
February 19, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink