By now, we've all seen those pictures of Allen Stanford hobnobbing with lawmakers in Antigua. But, with the exception of one trip by Sen. John Cornyn, it wasn't Stanford himself who picked up the tab for these jaunts -- it was an obscure outfit called the Inter-American Economic Council.

And taking a closer look at the IAEC, and its ties to Stanford, sheds some light on how the Texas billionaire gained access to all those members of Congress -- and what he hoped to gain by doing so.

The IAEC's website says that the Washington-based group was founded in 1999 and that it aims to "provide senior Government Officials, leading Business Executives, and Academic Professionals the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about current and future economic strategies in the Hemisphere." And in 2003, the Associated Press reported (via Nexis) that, according to IAEC president Barry Featherman, the organization "relies mostly on contributions from U.S. corporations."

But the group appears to have remarkably close ties to Stanford himself. In this 2006 report, Bloomberg described Stanford as a "principal backer" of the organization. And Stanford Financial told Bloomberg that it had "donated the use of its aircraft" to the IAEC for one 2006 trip to Jamaica that four Democratic lawmakers went on.

That same year, the IAEC gave Stanford its "Excellence in Leadership" award. A press release put out by the group (since removed from its website) declared that Stanford "has strongly supported the work that the IAEC is doing in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Stanford also appears to have taken advantage of IAEC-funded events by showing up personally to schmooze lawmakers. We already posted these shots of current or former lawmakers including Katherine Harris, Pete Sessions, Tom Feeney, James Clyburn, and John Sweeney chilling with Stanford and Caribbean dignitaries in Antigua in 2005.

But there's also another set of interesting shots from the previous year, showing Stanford breaking bread with, and addressing, lawmakers -- including former GOP congressman Bob Ney (since jailed for taking bribes from Jack Abramoff) -- at an IAEC-sponsored event in Washington.

(You can see the slideshow of photographs from that event here.)

What was Stanford talking to lawmakers about? An IAEC press release from (via Nexis) from the event gives a hint. It says that in his speech, Stanford "addressed the need to streamline regulatory regimes that make it difficult for investors to take advantage of all of the opportunities that exist in the region."

And that same year, Newsday reported (via Nexis) on an IAEC-sponsored trip to Jamaica that included Democratic congressman Gregory Meeks. The IAEC, said the paper, hoped to "ease Patriot Act restrictions on offshore banking," and that according to Meeks, "the trip was an effort by the Inter-American Economic Council to explain the hardships the act has imposed on Caribbean banks."

In other words, Stanford and the IAEC used these events to try to convince lawmakers not to crack down on tax loopholes that work to benefit offshore banking -- exactly the loopholes that allowed Stanford to operate his alleged multi-billion-dollar scam, free from regulatory scrutiny, for so long .

In fact, the IAEC even seems to have used its clout to create a new congressional caucus -- the Caribbean Caucus -- made up of may of the lawmakers who went on the IAEC-backed trips.

After one such trip in 2003, attended by then-Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL), among others, Featherman, the IAEC president, revealed that "Congress is expected to form an informal, bipartisan Caribbean caucus to focus on issues of interest to the region," according to the AP (via Nexis).

The Caribbean Caucus would at various times include, among others, Ney, Meeks, Sweeney, Sessions, Feeney, Charlie Rangel, Mel Watt, Donald Payne, Phil English, Steve Chabot, Donna Christensen, Diane Watson, and Al Wynn, all of whom went to events on IAEC's dime.

Indeed, Stanford seems to have had some sway not only over the IAEC, but over the membership of the Caribbean Caucus itself. That Bloomberg story from 2006 reports that it was Stanford himself who asked Sessions to become a member of the caucus. Sessions seems to have agreed.

The IAEC is staying mum about its relationship to Stanford -- it hasn't returned either of TPMmuckraker's calls over the last few days. And the office of Rep. Payne, who was at one time listed as a co-chair, along with Ney, of the Caribbean Caucus, declined to make anyone available to answer TPMmuckraker's questions.

We've put together a slideshow of that 2005 junket that a group of lawmakers -- including Katherine Harris, Tom Feeney, John Sweeney, James Clyburn, and Pete Sessions, went on to Antigua, paid for by an organization with close ties to Stanford.

Our favorite is the one of Harris and Sir Allen gazing into each other's eyes.

Check it out...

Here at TPMmuckraker, the more we think about the Allen Stanford saga, the more it seems like a kind of harmonic convergence of recent high-profile muck.

The emerging story's range of ties -- some incidental, some more substantive -- to some other high-profile scandals of the past few years, from Bermard Madoff to Jack Abramoff to Rod Blagojevich -- is pretty striking.

First, Madoff.

It's not just that questions about the pace of the SEC's Stanford investigation -- including whether the agency's decision to bring charges yesterday was prompted in part by recent news reports -- have to be considered in light of the SEC's well-documented missteps on the Madoff case.

It's also that, according to the SEC complaint, Stanford's investors were exposed to losses via Madoff -- but falsely assured them they weren't.

From the complaint:

In a December 2008 Monthly Report, the bank told investors that their money was safe because SID "had no direct or indirect exposure to any of [Bernard] Madoffs investments."

But, contrary to this statement, at least $400,000 in Tier 2 was invested in Meridian, a New York-based hedge fund that used Tremont Partners as its asset manager. Tremont invested approximately 6-8% of the SIB assets they indirectly managed with Madoffs investment firm.

Pendergest, Davis and Stanford knew about this exposure to loss relating to the Meridian investment. On December 15, 2008, an Analyst informed Pendergast, Davis and Stanford in a weekly report that his "rough estimate is a loss of $400k ... based on the indirect exposure" to Madoff'.

As for Abramoff, we reported yesterday that a bevvy lawmakers with ties to the crooked lobbyist or a history of other ethical problems - including then-GOP members of Congress Bob Ney, Katherine Harris, Tom Feeney, and John Sweeney, as well as current Rep. Charlie Rangel -- went on a 2005 junket to Antigua that was funded by an organization with close links to Stanford.

Indeed, until yesterday, that organization, the Inter-American Economic Council, had photographs from the trip -- showing Harris, Feeney, and pals hobnobbing in splendor with Antiguan dignitaries -- posted on its website. It's since removed them, but not before we saved them. You can see the slideshow here.

And there's also another congressional angle which, though not on a par with the Abramoff sleaze, nonetheless appears to reflect the cynical money-for-access culture that has characterized Washington politics in recent years:

In 2002, as we reported yesterday, after lobbying from Stanford's firm, the Democratic-controlled Senate killed a bill designed to bolster efforts to catch financial fraud. During that cycle, Stanford's company had given an eye-popping $800,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And according to campaign finance records examined by TPMmuckraker, it had also given generously to key Democrats on the Senate Banking committee: $8000 to Chuck Schumer, $6000 to Chris Dodd, and $1000 to then-chair Paul Sarbanes.

So there's that.

What about Blago?

Well, it turns out that, according to lobby disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, one of Stanford's paid lobbyists in 2002 -- the year that the firm was lobbying on the anti-financial-fraud bill -- was John Wyma. One form lists Wyma and his team's work as "Helping them address legislature (sic) which involves financial services companies."

In case you'd forgotten, Wyma used to be one of Blagojevich's closest aides, before cooperating with Pat Fitzgerald's investigation by secretly recording conversations with the then governor.

The two were apparently think as thieves at one time. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time of Blago's arrest:

The governor routinely reported exchanging personal gifts and often appeared at Wyma-sponsored fundraisers where Wyma's clients hobnobbed with the governor before turning over checks for his campaign fund.

Now all we need is a link to the U.S. Attorney firings, and we'll be all set.