How R. Allen Stanford Bribed Congress

April 17. 2009

R. Allen Stanford (doesn't he look like actor John Cleese)

An insightful article in the Miami New Times explored the bribery aspect of the R. Allen Stanford case. It also serves to confirm what I have stated all along, bribery is a way of life for many in the corporate world. I saw that firsthand in the Madonna case, which coincidentally happened in Miami as well, much like many elements of the Stanford case.

The R. Allen Stanford ponzi case reveals how astonishingly easy it is to bribe Congress. The FBI and SEC knew of Stanford's misconduct since the 90's and did nothing. Why? Stanford gave $5,000,000 to various Republicans and Democrats in Congress to kill a bill introduced by former president Bill Clinton A/K/A "Bubba" that would have shut fraudsters like him down. The bill was called the Financial Services Antifraud Network Act.

After the donations to Congress people, said bill addressing bank fraud was mysteriously killed in the Senate. Had it passed, Stanford's goose most likely would have been cooked.

Another thing that disgusts me about the Stanford case, is how he corrupted the judicial and arbitrary system, using his looted ponzi money, to buy influence with judges, in terrible bids at silencing employees that began blowing the whistle several years ago.

Charles Hazlett, former Stanford employee that was defrauded in court, should sue him again

Said American employees that left in separate cases several years ago or were terminated when they figured out he was running a ponzi scheme, legally tried to receive their pay and all that was owed to them, but due to corruption by Stanford, were slapped with $150,000 to $200,000 in legal fees for daring to file a claim and speak out about his wrongdoing.

Said judges and arbitrators should be brought up on fraud charges, as these people made serious, credible allegations that were 100% true and had you heeded the warnings, instead of fawningly bowing to corruption, investors all over the world wouldn't be out $8 billion dollars and America's name in the financial world would not have sustained another terrible blackeye.

Madoff, Stanford and other greedy, corrupt titans in the corporate sector, killed the American dream for many. They also killed free trade, with this crooked redistribution of wealth.

These men and women are not successes. They are thieves, frauds, crooks and liars, who should have gotten real jobs instead of stealing from everyone else who actually has one.

Success in the corporate arena is when you build a company from the ground up that provides a true service - such as American Airlines (air travel), Apple (computers), Macy's (clothes and housewares) and Marie Callender's (food) to name a few.

Stealing everyone's money under false pretenses, so you can live a lavish lifestyle makes you a failure and a fraud.

The Fall of a Titan

Even more than Bernie Madoff's tale, Allen Stanford's rise and fall is the story of the past decade in America, where greed mixed with cynical politics birthed a perfect storm for accused hucksters such as Stanford to bring the global economy to its knees. And as Stanford's story shows, the warning signs were there. They were simply ignored...

In 1999, a DEA investigation found that members of the vicious Juárez Cartel in Mexico had deposited more than $3 million in Stanford's bank to launder drug money. Stanford quickly surrendered the cartel's money to the DEA and earned praise from the agency for his quick action. But later that year, federal regulators placed Antigua on a blacklist of nations suspected of money laundering and fraud.

That same year, the Clinton administration introduced a bill to crack down on overseas banks favored by gambling rings, drug militias, and terrorists. Two months later, according to a study by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, Stanford hired a powerhouse lobbying group to fight the bill and began donating to both major parties. He handed out $208,000 to Republican campaign committees and $145,000 to Democrats that year. Among his biggest recipients were powerful Texas lawmakers, including House Democratic Caucus Chair Martin Frost. The bill, despite passing a House committee 31-1 with strong Treasury Department backing, was allowed to die in a Senate committee.

In 2002, as Congress took up a bill called the Financial Services Antifraud Network Act, which would have strengthened U.S. regulators, Stanford upped his lobbying. That year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — a nonprofit group that monitors campaign money — Stanford's company gave $800,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — the vice chairman of which was Florida's own Sen. Bill Nelson. The senator received more of Stanford's cash than any other member of Congress, according to one study, with $45,900 donated to his campaign. Stanford, in fact, personally hosted a fundraising event for Nelson in Florida. The anti-money-laundering bill died in a Senate committee ...

In all, Stanford spent nearly $5 million lobbying Congress between 1999 and 2008 and dished out $2.4 million to federal candidates. He also sponsored dozens of free, "fact-finding" trips to Antigua and other Caribbean islands for politicians and their staffs on his fleet of jets. Records of the trips show that former Florida Rep. Katherine Harris took one such jaunt to Saint John's. Disgraced Texas Republican Tom DeLay flew 11 times on Stanford's jets, according to the Dallas Morning News...

Like Hazlett's, Basagoitia's claims were summarily dismissed, and both brokers were left to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and attorney's fees to Stanford. Neither ever heard from the SEC regarding their accusations. And if their voices weren't loud enough for regulators, another Miami employee took his suspicions to court in 2006 and laid out in even greater detail Sir Allen's schemes....

In the filings, De Maria said he told his immediate boss in 2004 he suspected the firm was laundering South American drug money, lying to investors, running a gigantic Ponzi scheme, and paying off Antiguan and American politicians to look the other way. The company settled De Maria's case almost immediately after his lawyers got a court order that would have forced Allen Stanford to testify...

The regulatory board that heard Hazlett's and Basagoitia's testimony is sanctioned directly by the SEC, and De Maria publicly made his claims in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Yet the wing of the government charged with rooting out bank and investment fraud did not respond to the concerns piling up around Sir Allen's operations...