Financier/Texan Sir Allen Stanford (above, left) — the first American to be knighted by Antigua and Barbuda — was once called “a narcissist, a misogynist and a vulgarian” by the Guardian’s Lawrence Donegan. If the SEC is correct, you can add Bernie Madoff Wannabe to the Twenty20 moneyman’s resume. From the BBC :
Billionaire and cricket promoter Sir Allen Stanford has been charged over a $8bn (£5.6bn) investment fraud, US financial regulators say.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said the financier had orchestrated “a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme”.
The SEC said the fraud was “based on false promises and fabricated historical return data”.
The charges against Sir Allen, three of his companies and two executives of those companies followed a raid by US marshals on the Houston, Texas, offices of Stanford Financial Group.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) suspended sponsorship negotiations with him following the fraud charges. The ECB has a five-year deal to play games against the Stanford Superstars.
The SEC said that the Stanford International Bank – the largest in the Caribbean – sold approximately $8bn worth of certificates of deposit to investors, promising “improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates”.
The bank was “operated by a close circle of Stanford’s family and friends”, the SEC said in a statement.
“We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world,” said Rose Romero of the SEC.