Stanford arrested and charged with fraud

[Green Tea]

It has been reported that Allen Stanford has been arrested and charged with fraud by US authorities.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that they were "alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude".

The ECB reacted to the news with a statement saying it and the West Indies board had "suspended negotiations with Sir Allen Stanford and his financial corporation concerning a new sponsorship deal".

Earlier today the SEC accused Stanford, the head of the Stanford Financial Group, of fraud in the sale of about US$8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit held in the firm's bank in Antigua. James M. Davis, a director and chief financial officer of Stanford Group, was also arrested

The SEC said it could not account for the US$8 billion in assets that were housed in the Antigua bank after issuing subpoenas for bank records and to various witnesses. Most of those subpoenaed, including Davis and Stanford, failed to testify or produce documents relating to the assets.

The SEC went on to describe claims by the bank that it paid "significantly" higher returns on its CDs because of the high quality of its investments as "improbable, if not impossible". It is believed that Stanford and Davis's assets have been frozen pending further investigations and that their passports have been confiscated.

The SEC's investigation into Stanford Financial Group comes at a time it is under considerable pressure inside the USA for its inaction regarding the multi-billion Bernard L. Madoff case.

Rise and fall

Feb 25: Stanford reveals his plan for a $20 million Twenty20 match which he calls the “OK Corral” of cricket.
June 11: Stanford signs a five-year $100m deal with the ECB. He lands his helicopter at Lord’s before having his photograph taken with a chest of dollar bills.
Oct 27: The Stanford Super Series gets off to a bad start when he sits the pregnant wife of England wicketkeeper Matt Prior on his knee. Stanford issues apology to the team.
Oct 28: A party for England and the Superstars is cancelled as Stanford avoids a public meeting with Kevin Pietersen’s team.
Oct 29: ECB announce a review of the Stanford deal, three days before the $20m match takes place.
Nov 1: England are thrashed by 10 wickets as the Stanford Superstars team, led by Chris Gayle, become dollar millionaires.
Dec 17: Stanford sacks his board of legends, which included Sir Viv Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers, and closes his office in Antigua. His deal with the ECB looks dead.
Feb 11: Announces the end of his $20m match after one year but confirms the Stanford Quadrangular will take place at Lord’s in May.
Feb 17: Securites and Exchange Commission charge Sir Allen Stanford and three associates with alleged fraud 'of shocking magnitude'.
From Cricinfo

[Farhad]

Honestly, Im not too surprised. Something about him always put me off..

[Padosan]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/17/news...ion=2009021713

hmm, i guess he lost too much in West Indies cricket. If WICB had any glimmer of hope that Stanford might come back sometime later again, its all down the drains now

Atleast the English players(with Wife's and GF's incident) might be saying "Karma is a B****"

cheers !

[Akib]

Wow... 9 billion. That is huge!

England players must be having fun.

[JonBain]

Originally Posted by Padosan
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/17/news...ion=2009021713
At least the English players (with Wife's and GF's incident) might be saying "Karma is a B****"

cheers !

Absolutely.
If someone is all over another man's woman, you just know he is a cheat.
Now we all know why Americans make the worlds worst cricketers.
That place is rotten.
Cricket players living in America:
Get out of there, if you are honest, or you'll end up being drafted into the Fourth Reich.

USA of 2009 = Germany of 1929

Don't say you were not warned

[Farhad]

Originally Posted by JonBain
USA of 2009 = Germany of 1929

lol?

[ialbd]

what a clown..... that 'gf on his lap' story said it all....

[bujhee kom]

hahaha...bhaloi hoise buira lobhatoor lompot-tar, pacha-e maaro lathi...! good riddence! it (the old lompot) was a virus in the cariibean cricket! all $$$ but no education, no ethics, no soul cause nothing but over-powering sickness like this! good job by the feds! fry his buttocks and make his wrinkled hide well done!

also nobody put a gun in those three or four english players' wives, girl-friends to sit on the tard's lap, it's a somewhat self-inflicted disgrace by those women as well (if they were raped, i wouldn't have said this)! i am sorry i am being hateful here, but now i feel a sick pleasure knowing how ECB in particular got itself screwed being involve with that old chubacabra! and how it's the ECB chairman and those top high and al-mighty their lordships, english cricketers, the crown jewels of the cricket monarch now have to go find a cave to hide their faces in their feces!
hahaahaha...what goes around comes around!

and please bhais, don't just put all the frustration/blames on the spirit of the U.S. do blame it for what it deserves for! but here, please blame that old chubacabra named stanford, but not the U.S. for destroying cricket!? hahaha...who plays or cares for cricket here?
it is satanford who should be hanged in west texas and be made into stinky boots for the fellow migrant cattle herders!

[Akib]

Originally Posted by JonBain
Get out of there, if you are honest, or you'll end up being drafted into the Fourth Reich.

USA of 2009 = Germany of 1929

Don't say you were not warned

What????? Am I supposed to laugh??

[CholCholBD]

Whyy was that guy comparing US to Nazi Germany? LOL

I dont think he has ever seen the Dhaka frauds.........(HINT: Their character is "fuler moto pobitro, desh premik")

[Ajfar]

Originally Posted by CholCholBD
Whyy was that guy comparing US to Nazi Germany? LOL

I dont think he has ever seen the Dhaka frauds.........(HINT: Their character is "fuler moto pobitro, desh premik")

k seriously u guys need to get over itt..and wat's with the desh premik...nije ki desh premik?? taile deshe jaw...americate thako keno???

[Rabz]

I'm a bit surprised to be honest. Someone with a tag of "Sir" being caught on fraud charges is not you see everyday.

So, what happens now? The Queen takes back the Knighthood?

[Baundule]

Originally Posted by Rabz
I'm a bit surprised to be honest. Someone with a tag of "Sir" being caught on fraud charges is not you see everyday.

So, what happens now? The Queen takes back the Knighthood?

Seems, one can buy a 'Sir' title with black money.

[zainab]

The FBI cannot find him to arrest him. The way he threw money around was outrageous and i used to be very annoyed at the big cash prizes he used to hand out to MOM and also for the special player of the match. I was mad with him for throwing around so much money and spoiling those poor West Indians. Now, it is all finished and they can come down to earth.

[bujhee kom]

guys, they caught the filthy old pervart.
the feds probably caught him in the nbc nightline show where they have sting operation to catch neighbourhood's old pervs and th camera!
hahahaha!
i know i shouldn't be openly laughing at another man's misery! but i thought about it a lot, this guy doesn't deserve humanity! he is a fraud, a con-man, a mega-thief who stole billions of other people however earned $ and tried to get away with it along with touching other folks' wives inappropriately that you all already know!

from cricinfo: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/c...ry/391361.html


The Satanford meltdown

Satanford found in Virginia

Cricinfo staff

February 20, 2009



People queue outside the Bank of Antigua, owned by the Stanford Group, early on Wednesday © PA Photos



After 48 hours below the radar, Allen Stanford has been located in Virgina and served with the complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission by FBI officials. A spokesman said that Stanford had not been charged and had surrendered his passport.

An FBI agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AFP agency the papers were served around 1.45 pm while sitting in a car, adding the authorities did not believe he had been purposely hiding.

This news emerged even as raids continued on his offices across the US and investors and depositors queued up to recover their money from his various companies.

On Wednesday, Stanford, who has been accused of being involved in an alleged US$8 billion fraud, allegedly attempted to hire a private jet to fly him from Houston to Antigua, but his credit card was declined and the hire company insisted on a wire transfer. Stanford's accounts were frozen on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle newspaper earlier on Thursday, Stanford's father James also said he had no idea of his whereabouts. "I'd spoken to him a week or so ago about problems with the business climate in general, but nothing of this magnitude," he said. "I cannot imagine, I cannot believe, I will not believe what is being alleged actually happened. I cannot believe that my son would run."

It was a sentiment echoed by thousands of ordinary people who had invested in his companies or put their money in his banks. Long queues formed outside the Bank of Antigua in St John's as investors tried to withdraw cash despite assurances that the bank had enough money to meet all its liabilities. Queues were also reported in other countries where people had invested in Stanford companies.

Faced with widespread anxiety on the island, where Stanford employs more than 5% of the total workforce, Antigua's prime minister, Baldwin Spencer, went on television to urge people to remain calm although he admitted the scandal could have "catastrophic" consequences.

© Cricinfo

[Rifat]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...ry/568390.html

Allen Stanford, the disgraced Texan financier who came to embody English cricket's most embarrassing alliance, has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for one of the biggest frauds in history. He was convicted in March on 13 of 14 charges of defrauding investors of more than $7 billion (£4.5 billion).

Stanford was hailed as cricket's American sugar daddy when he bankrolled an international cricket tournament in Antigua that promised to transform cricket finances in England and West Indies and, in the eyes of ECB executives, provide a rival to the burgeoning Indian Premier League.

But his financial empire collapsed under an investigation by United States regulators. Since his arrest in 2009, he has spent three years in jail without bail.

Stanford, whose trial was delayed on health grounds after he was beaten up by prison inmates, has always denied his guilt and told the District Judge David Hittner at his sentencing hearing: "I did not defraud anybody".

Stanford's statement lasted around 40 minutes as he stuck to his claim that he did not run a Ponzi scheme - a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organisation - and that his financial affairs only collapsed once investigations into his affairs became known.

He told the judge: "I'm not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy. I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn't defraud anybody."

Prosecutors had asked for a 230-year sentence, with defence lawyers arguing for a lenient term of 44 months.

It was all a world away from the night in 2008 that England and West Indies fought out a Twenty20 match in Antigua for a winner-takes-all prize of £20m. Stanford socialised in a touchy-feely fashion with England players' wives, waved to the crowds, entered the dressing rooms at will, and finished the night with what was virtually an impromptu cabaret.

The deal had been publicised in ostentatious style as Stanford was allowed to land his private helicopter on the outfield at Lord's, after which he presented a Perspex box filled with $20 million in prize money in front of smiling ECB officials.

Stanford signed a five year deal with the ECB worth $100 million in total, an episode from which some believe English cricket has never entirely recovered. But financial experts have repeatedly suggested that his real victims are the investors, whose estimates suggest have received back about 5% of their investment. Cricket, presenting itself as victims in a highly-complex case, has not returned a penny.

In Antigua, where financial regulation was relatively lax, Stanford had a private terminal at the airport, was one of its biggest employers on the island and was said to be worth more than Antigua's GDP. He was knighted in 2006 but after the extent of his fraud was revealed he was stripped of the title.