Breaking news (by way of Mexico): Billionaire sleazebag "Sir Allen" Stanford charged with fraud by the SEC

"Sir Allen" and his, er, group

by Ken

Howie has found his way to a connected computer long enough to pass on a bit of breaking news, with this note:

I wrote about this crook a few days ago. He{s like a posterboy for why we should have public financing of electoral politics. He was writing mammoth checks to corrupt Republicans and Democrats -- especially the ones dealing with writing offshore banking rules -- on the same fucking days.

Here's the start of what he wrote Friday:

Crooked Billionaire Pays Off Crooked Politicians -- Steals Billions?

Flamboyant Houston billionaire R. Allen Stanford and his Stanford Financial Group are under investigation. I doubt he'll break a sweat. Mr. Sir Stanford (he was knighted by Antigua in 2006 and has gone by the name Sir Allen Stanford ever since) has prison insurance -- and lots of it. OK, he may not have the big prison-proof names that members of Congress like Jerry Lewis or Duncan Hunter or Tom DeLay have, but he has something just as good: cash. And he has spread it around. I'll get to that in a second.

Now the breaking news, from the Washington Post:

SEC Charges Stanford Financial in $8B Fraud

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 17, 2009; 1:12 PM

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a prominent Texas businessman and three of his companies with an $8 billion fraud in the sale of certificates of deposit. The case appears to mark one of the largest alleged frauds by a money manager in U.S. history.

Robert Allen Stanford and his companies sold $8 billion of CDs -- guaranteed fixed-income investment products -- to investors by "promising improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates," the SEC said in a statement. The agency named in its complaint Stanford International Bank Ltd., based in Antigua, and related firms based in Houston.

The SEC said the firms falsely claimed that their deposits were safe, that more than 20 analysts monitor the investments, and that yearly audits were being conducted.

In addition, one of Stanford's companies falsely told customers that it was not exposed to the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff, the SEC said.

A federal judge in North Texas, where the case was filed, has frozen Stanford's assets. The SEC said Stanford had not cooperated and that it is still investigating the alleged fraud.

UPDATE (FROM MEXICO): WHAT, STILL NO ANKLE BRACELET?

CNBC reported this morning that "Sir" Allen tried to flee the U.S. on a private plane. Apparently he's desperate to reach the banana republic he owns a healthy chunk of but was foiled, neglecting to have sent a wire transfer to rent the getaway plane. He called them at 3pm and said he had to leave by 6pm for Antigua.

Does anyone know if Chuck Schumer and the other politicians who have aided and abetted Stanford in his offshore banking shenanigans have been asked about returning any of the million plus dollars he gave them as legalized bribes over the years? And since the SEC now says they don't know Stanford's whereabouts, I'm wondering if the FBI is on this. Or have his political connections given the word that he's allowed to escape? -- Howie

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