Allen Stanford

Prosecutors: Allen Stanford Is Faking Amnesia To Avoid Trial

Jillian Rayfield | December 19, 2011, 10:00AM

Prosecutors say alleged Ponzi-schemer Allen Stanford is faking amnesia to avoid standing trial, according to a medical report.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford Tries To Send Bank On Document Fishing Expedition

Zoe Schlanger | July 28, 2011, 4:55PM

Allen Stanford

Texas billionare Allen Stanford, on trial for allegedly orchestrating an $8 billion international ponzi scheme, has sent a Louisiana bank on an "impermissible fishing expedition"—and the bank is refusing.

According to court filings, Stanford faxed Whitney Bank a subpoena two weeks ago, summoning them to testify at his criminal trial, and bring with them an "overbroad" list of documents.

The fax reads:

"To bring: Any and all bank records, account records, documents, papers, memorandum, electronic or otherwise, including but not limited to, checking accounts or any other bank relationships related to Robert Allen Stanford or any of the Stanford entities from the inception of your relationship until the present or end of your professional relationship."

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford Drops Suit Against Feds For Allegedly Violating Constitutional Rights

Ryan J. Reilly | March 24, 2011, 8:00AM

Allen Stanford

Alleged ponzi-schemer Allen Stanford has dropped a lawsuit seeking $7.2 billion from federal law enforcement because he says they violated his constitutional rights, but indicated that he could refile once the criminal case against him concludes.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford's Case Highlights Prison Violence

Ryan J. Reilly | January 27, 2011, 1:45PM

Allen Stanford

An inmate at the Joe Corley Detention Facility, a private prison owned by the GEO Group, was on the phone in his cell. The other prisoners in his unit on that day in late September 2009 didn't like that.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Judge: Sir Allen Stanford Incompetent To Stand Trial

Ryan J. Reilly | January 26, 2011, 11:00PM

Allen Stanford

Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, who allegedly defrauded investors of millions of dollars in a vast offshore Ponzi scheme, isn't currently competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Supreme Court Nixes Allen Stanford Request To Review Case

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 8:36AM

allen Stanford

The Supreme Court has denied the alleged Ponzi-schemer Allen Stanford's request for writ of certiorari, according to a letter filed by a court clerk last week. Stanford's previous legal team had requested the high court direct the lower court send the record in the case for review.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford's Lawyers Say Alleged Ponzi Schemer Needs Luxury Rehab

Ryan J. Reilly | January 19, 2011, 1:05PM

Mark Stanford

Lawyers for Allen Stanford say the billionaire allegedly Ponzi schemer is addicted to an anti-anxiety medication and needs to be released from prison and sent to an upscale rehabilitation facility in Houston, Texas.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford Goes To Rehab As Lawyers Defend 'Musical Attorneys'

Ryan J. Reilly | January 7, 2011, 10:40AM

Allen Stanford

A federal judge has ordered alleged Texas billionaire scammer Allen Stanford to get treatment for an addiction to prescription drugs before he faces trial, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

After Complaining Of Delay, Allen Stanford Wants Two Year Hold On Trial

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2011, 12:00PM

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford, the man accused of stealing $7 billion from investors in a Ponzi scheme, wants a two year delay in his trial. But the Justice Department argued this week that's all his lawyers are trying to do with their request is to get him released from prison in the interim.

The feds said in a court filing that the two year postponement is excessive and that defense lawyers had already filed motions "covering most conceivable legal issues."

Read more »

Allen Stanford

US Diplomats Avoided Allen Stanford Long Before His Arrest

Ryan J. Reilly | December 21, 2010, 12:01PM

Allen Stanford

Long before the feds got him, corrupt Texas financier Allen Stanford was persona non grata in the circles of U.S. diplomats, according to cables released by WikiLeaks, the Guardian reported.

Diplomats were so concerned about the rumors of "bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation" surrounding Stanford that they avoided contac with him or being photographed with him more than two years before his arrest by the FBI for allegedly bilking investors of $7 billion in a huge Ponzi scheme.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Stanford 'A Wreck Of A Man' As Defense Team Turns To Dershowitz

Zachary Roth | May 19, 2010, 11:34AM

Alan Dershowitz and Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford has been reduced to "a wreck of a man" and fears he is "losing his mind" as he awaits trial in a Texas prison, according to his attorneys. They've brought in celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz to argue that the conditions in which Stanford is being held are hindering his ability to prepare a defense, and to request his immediate release.

The former high-living billionaire is in a bad way, according to a motion filed yesterday by his team -- "malnourished and underweight," "slow in his gait ... and in his speech and thoughts," quickly losing his memory, frequently falling into "mental black holes," and largely unable to use his right eye to read, thanks to the effects of a brutal physical assault.

Read more »

Spencer Barasch

Ex-SEC Official's Pitch To Prospective Client: I Promoted The Guys Who Filed Complaint Against You

Justin Elliott | April 26, 2010, 2:22PM

Spencer Barasch

"I am friends with and helped promote two of the guys who signed the Complaint against Mark. Someone should tell Mark to look at my profile on my firm website, my SEC press releases, and advise Mark to add me to his defense team."

Those are the words of former SEC Fort Worth enforcement chief Spencer Barasch, in a 2008 email pitching his services to a person close to Mark Cuban, the billionaire Texas businessman then facing an SEC insider trading complaint, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Read more »

John Kasich

Stanford Lobbyist, Bush Admin. Medicare Bamboozler Host Kasich Fundraiser

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2010, 3:29PM

Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, Alston & Bird attorney Tom Scully (left inset), and Ripon Society President Jim Conzelman (right inset)

Two of the hosts of a fundraiser for Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich have some interesting items on their resumes: One was a senior executive and top lobbyist for alleged Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, while another is a former Bush administration official who threatened to fire a subordinate if he revealed to Congress the true cost of a major bill.

This afternoon, Washington's tony Capitol Hill Club was the scene of a fundraiser for Kasich, the former Ohio congressman who is the presumptive Republican nominee to take on the incumbent Democratic governor, Ted Strickland, this fall. According to an invitation obtained by TPMmuckraker, the 15-person host committee includes Jim Conzelman and Tom Scully.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Private Regulator -- Where Current SEC Chair Was Top Official -- Also Fell Down On Stanford Job

Zachary Roth | April 20, 2010, 5:46PM

Allen Stanford

A good catch by the government watchdog group POGO...

We told you yesterday about that internal SEC report on the Allen Stanford matter, which slammed the agency for failing to act on credible allegations that the banker was a fraud. But it wasn't just the SEC that appears to have fallen down on the job.

Read more »

Spencer Barasch

SEC Enforcement Lawyer Who Quashed Stanford Probes Later Did Legal Work For Stanford

Justin Elliott | April 19, 2010, 2:01PM

Spencer Barasch (inset) and Allen Stanford (center)

The new inspector general report on the SEC's handling of the Allen Stanford alleged Ponzi scheme case paints a devastating picture of the agency's repeated failures to pursue the billionaire banker, despite a widespread belief within the SEC's Fort Worth office that he was a fraud.

At the center of the story is Spencer Barasch, the chief of enforcement at the SEC's Fort Worth office, who declined to pursue Stanford multiple times, only to later jump ship to become a partner at a big private law firm where he proceeded to represent none other than 'Sir' Allen Stanford.

The inspector general has referred Barasch to the bars of Washington and Texas, where he is licensed, for potential violation of conflict of interest rules.

Read more »

Securities and Exchange Commission

Report Finds Catastrophic Failure By SEC In Stanford Ponzi Case

Justin Elliott | April 19, 2010, 10:19AM

Allen Stanford

In news buried by the Goldman fraud charges, the Inspector General for the SEC issued a blistering 159-page report Friday concluding that the agency's Fort Worth office knew that Texas businessman Allen Stanford was operating a Ponzi scheme in 1997 -- but didn't make a serious effort to pursue the matter for eight years, until 2005.

Stanford, a flamboyant Texas billionaire, is currently in jail facing charges of operating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Campaign Committees Not Rushing To Return Tainted Stanford Money

Zachary Roth | February 11, 2010, 11:59AM

Allen Stanford

Neither the Democratic nor the Republican campaign committees that raked in big bucks from accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, according to the court-appointed receiver in the case, say they plan to return the cash.

The receiver, Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey told the AP that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) had received $950,000 from Stanford, and that the National Republican Campaign Committee had gotten $238,500.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

A Washington Tale: As Feds Closed In, Stanford Boosted Efforts To Buy Influence

Zachary Roth | January 5, 2010, 2:00PM

Allen Stanford

As the federal government closed in on Allen Stanford in 2008, he began desperately pulling out all the stops in a bid to stay one step ahead. The Texas banker launched his own in-house lobbying shop, run by a former top aide to a powerful congressman. And he hired a former Clinton administration PR specialist to aggressively deflect reporters looking into his financial empire.

The Stanford story, of course, is primarily about how a high-living tycoon used a Caribbean tax shelter to allegedly orchestrate a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. But it's also an object lesson in how Washington works: How wealthy and powerful people can buy a level of influence and access that allows them to play by a different set of rules. In Stanford's case, that only worked for so long. But it's not hard to see how he could have thought playing the Beltway influence game might be his salvation.

Read more »

Carlos Loumiet

Stanford's Lawyer Played Key Role In Shielding Banker From Scrutiny

Zachary Roth | January 4, 2010, 12:01PM

Allen Stanford

We told you earlier today about Yolanda Suarez, the Florida lawyer who forged ties with members of Congress and ran interference with journalists on behalf of Allen Stanford. But it's also worth paying attention to another Florida lawyer and key Stanford ally, who appears to have played an equally crucial role in allowing the Texas banker -- who was charged in June with orchestrating a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme -- to stay a step ahead of the government for so long.

As Stanford's lawyer of choice, Carlos Loumiet helped set up the unusual regulatory arrangement that allowed the Stanford Financial Group (SFG) to move hundreds of millions of dollars from Florida to Antigua with little scrutiny. Soon afterwards, he served on a Stanford-funded task-force to rewrite Antigua's banking laws -- an effort that U.S. regulators have said left major loopholes and hindered efforts to crack down on fraud. And the court-appointed receiver seeking to unravel Stanford's far-flung financial empire has demanded that the two law firms that have employed Loumiet -- who hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing -- hand over records of their work on behalf of Stanford.

Read more »

Yolanda Suarez

Top Stanford Aide Schmoozed Lawmakers, Sweet-Talked Journos

Zachary Roth | January 4, 2010, 8:33AM

Yolanda Suarez and Allen Stanford

In the late nineties, Douglas Farah, at the time a reporter for the Washington Post, was looking into a then-obscure Antigua-based businessman who had played a key role in helping the island nation rewrite its banking laws, frustrating U.S. efforts to crack down on money laundering.

Farah's reporting suggested that Allen Stanford wielded surprising influence in the Antiguan government. And Farah was hearing that the Texas-born billionaire and his company, the Stanford Financial Group (SFG), had ties to Latin American drug money.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Meeks Stays Mum On Ties To Stanford

Zachary Roth | December 30, 2009, 8:44AM

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)

Faced with a credible news report that they agreed to a request from Allen Stanford to ask Hugo Chavez to file criminal charges against a Venezuelan banker, most politicians would likely want to respond. Either to deny the story, or at least to offer some generic and uncontroversial sentiment like "Congressman X believes Allen Stanford should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." After all, that's not exactly the kind of story most pols want to leave just hanging out there.

Not Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), though. Over 60 hours after McClatchy reported that Meeks agreed to that request during a 2006 phone call with Stanford, the New York congressman remains mum. His office didn't respond to McClatchy, and his press secretary hasn't returned two voice-mails and email from TPMmuckraker.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Stanford's Shady Ties To Lawmakers Under Scrutiny

Zachary Roth | December 29, 2009, 2:16PM

Allen Stanford

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether members of Congress did special favors for Allen Stanford, the Texas banker charged with running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, McClatchy reported Sunday.

So what specifically might DOJ - which hasn't confirmed that the probe is underway -- be looking at?

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Special Delivery: Dem Rep Reportedly Takes Stanford's Message To Chavez

Zachary Roth | December 29, 2009, 9:38AM

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)

We've already told you about Rep. Pete Sessions's email to Allen Stanford in the wake of charges being filed against the banker for running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. "I love you and believe in you," wrote the GOP congressman to the alleged fraudster.

But Stanford may have had an even tighter bond with another member. After all, you have to be pretty close with someone to ask them to carry a message to Hugo Chavez on your behalf. Especially when that message is that you want the Venezuelan president to open a criminal investigation into an associate with whom you've fallen out. But according to McClatchy, that's what Stanford asked Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) to do. And, say the news outlet's sources, Meeks agreed.

Read more »

Fraud

AP: 2009 Was The Year Of The Collapsing Ponzi Scheme

Justin Elliott | December 28, 2009, 6:07PM

Bernie Madoff, Scott Rothstein, and Allen Stanford

Over 150 Ponzi schemes collapsed this year, up from just 40 last year, according to a new and, for TPMmuckraker readers, totally unsurprising tally by the AP.

The wire service reports:

Read more »

Pete Sessions

Sessions: Email To Stanford Was Just Designed 'To Encourage Right Decisions'

Zachary Roth | December 28, 2009, 2:11PM

We told you earlier about the tender email sent in February by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) to Allen Stanford, in which the lawmaker told the accused Ponzi schemer: "I love you and believe in you." We also told you about the lengthy ties between the two men.

Now Sessions's office has provided TPMmuckraker with a statement on the issue. We'll just let it speak for itself:

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Blame It On Antigua! The Forbidden 'Love' Of Pete Sessions And Allen Stanford

Zachary Roth | December 28, 2009, 12:06PM

Intrigue. Deceit. And forbidden love on a sun-kissed tropical island -- with billions of dollars on the line.

No, this isn't a Danielle Steel bodice-ripper. Or Mark Sanford's latest confession about crossing "the ultimate line". Instead, it's the story of the tangled, high-stakes relationship between Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Pete Sessions To Allen Stanford: 'I Love You And Believe In You'

Zachary Roth | December 28, 2009, 9:03AM

Allen Stanford

Now that's loyalty.

When a top supporter gets busted by the Feds for allegedly running a massive Ponzi scheme, most big-time pols are usually pretty quick to distance themselves. (See Crist, Charlie, for the locus classicus of the genre).

Read more »

CNBC

CNBC Blinded By Lavish Lifestyle Of Another Alleged Ponzi Schemer

Zachary Roth | December 1, 2009, 2:47PM

Tim Durham

Jon Stewart has already cornered the market on lampooning CNBC for the chronic lack of skepticism that characterized its coverage of the financial world during the boom years.

But the network's failure wasn't just a case of cheer-leading for Wall Street banks that made bad bets on the housing market. Both before and after last fall's financial crisis, CNBC has lavished fawning coverage on several high-flying financiers who later, say prosecutors, turned out to be little more than frauds. And this past week offered the latest example.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Knight Shift: Antigua Strips Stanford Of Title

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 6:08PM

Allen Stanford

And now, the unkindest cut of all...

An Antiguan panel has voted unanimously to strip Allen Stanford of his knighthood. The indicted Texas billionaire was said to have embarrassed the tiny Caribbean nation, where he had previously been the largest private employer.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Stanford Gets Prison Transfer To Pore Over Mass Of Case Docs

Justin Elliott | September 29, 2009, 11:48AM

Allen Stanford

A judge will allow accused fraudster Allen Stanford to be transferred from a private Texas jail to a federal prison in downtown Houston so he can better prepare his case, Bloomberg reports.

Stanford, who as of last night was still in a prison infirmary after suffering injuries in a fight, will be closer to court-appointed lawyers at the Houston facility.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Stanford Hurt In Prison Brawl

Zachary Roth | September 28, 2009, 9:54AM

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford's jail woes continue. The accused $7 billion Ponzi schemer sustained minor injuries after getting into a fight last week, reports the Houston Chronicle.

It's not clear how the fight between Stanford and the other inmate got started. But the one-time billionaire banker looks to have gotten the worst of it -- he was the only one taken to the hospital, with bruising and other superficial injuries.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Public Defender For Billionaire Stanford

Zachary Roth | September 15, 2009, 4:59PM

Allen Stanford

Billionaire banker Allen Stanford will have to settle for a public defender to represent him on charges that he orchestrated a massive financial fraud.

Stanford's assets have been frozen, leaving him with no money to pay Dick DeGuerin, the high-powered defense attorney he's been working with of late. With no guarantee of payment, DeGuerin formally withdrew, and U.S. District Judge David Hittner asked the head of the federal public defender office in Houston to take over, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Read more »

Allen Stanford

Stanford Operation Was Ponzi Scheme From The Start, Says Number 2

Zachary Roth | August 28, 2009, 12:59PM

Allen Stanford

Yesterday, we got new details on Allen Stanford's alleged $8 billion fraud, with the release of the plea deal signed by the Texas banker's number 2 man.

Jim Davis, Stanford's college roommate and the CFO of the Stanford Financial Group, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction charges. He told prosecutors that the company was a sham from the start, using money from new investors to pay off old ones. Davis also described how for years he helped cover up the scheme, and helped bribe a top Antiguan regulator to keep the SEC off the scent.

Read more »