Stanford Pleads The Fifth

March 12. 2009

Stanford is in a sticky situation

Things are not looking good, in terms of candor, in the R. Allen Stanford ponzi case. The disgraced fraudster has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. I'm sorry, but when a person does that, it makes them look so guilty.

The mere fact they are all clamming up at Stanford's company, says they did something wrong. Under such strong scrutiny and an international microscope, one should wish to say all one knows in a bid to clear one's name. Well, that is unless one is guilty of breaking the law and has no excuse for one's criminal conduct.   

In other Stanford news, the government has laid off 85% of his staff, which according to reports, equals 1,000 people.

Billionaire Stanford takes the 5th in fraud case

DALLAS (AP) — Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford is asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the federal government's fraud case against him and his companies.

In court papers filed Wednesday in federal court in Dallas, Stanford said he will "decline to testify, provide an accounting or produce any documents" related to the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case alleging he ran a "massive Ponzi scheme."…

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1,000 Stanford employees axed

As the company begins to look at selling off its assets and winding down operations this month, most of Stanford Financial Group’s employees have been told their services are no longer required.

Over the weekend, 1,000 employees located across the Houston-based company’s U.S. offices were terminated. The cuts account for about 85 percent of the company’s total U.S. head count. It's unclear how many employees were cut in the company's Austin offices.

http://www.bizjournals.com