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.