Stanford Biggest Texas scandal since Enron Author: James Thompson
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 02/23/09 11:37
HOUSTON – With typical
Texas flamboyance, Sir Robert Allen Stanford built a financial
empire which stretched across Texas, through Mexico, the
Caribbean islands and into South America. He was charged
by the SEC on Feb. 17 with defrauding investors of upwards
of $8 billion in the most shocking financial scandal in
Texas since the fall of Enron.
The centerpiece of his empire was a bank in Antigua,
which some think may have been a major drug money laundering
center for organized crime operations in Latin America.
A native of Mexia, Texas, he affected a British accent
and was knighted in Antigua. Some of the countries involved
in his financial operations included Colombia, Ecuador,
Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
Last week, after charges against him became public,
panicked investors flew their private jets to Antigua,
only to be turned away. Many Houston-area charities
supported by the Stanford empire, including the Museum
of Fine Arts in Houston and St. Jude’s Children’s
Hospital in Memphis will not be receiving their usual
contributions due to the pending investigations by multiple
branches of the federal government.
AP
Bank of Antigua’s customers form a line outside
the St. John’s branch in the Caribbean island of
Antigua, Feb. 18. Antigua’s Prime Minister, Baldwin
Spencer, urged people not to panic over a U.S. fraud probe
involving Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, who owns
the Bank of Antigua.
Right wing talk host Sean Hannity promoted Stanford
Coins & Bullion, a part of the Stanford Financial Group,
on advertisements which ran on his show by stating “their
name is as good as gold.”
Many people stand to be hurt in this far reaching scandal.
Some people had invested their life savings in the financial
group because of its claims of high rates of return.
Set in the context of the global financial catastrophe, many
people are questioning the wisdom of a system in which people’s
individual retirement funds can be swindled out of them by
private companies. They are also questioning a system which
makes the arts and health care dependent on charitable contributions
by these same unscrupulous individuals.
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