U.S. Senate bid to aid Stanford victims fails

The U.S. Senate overrode an attempt Tuesday by its two Louisiana members to stand up for victims of the $7 billion-plus Stanford investment scheme, although the defiance was largely symbolic and its futility does not directly affect the efforts of the victims to recover their losses. The Senate voted 48-46 to confirm President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sharon Bowen to a seat on the federal Commodities Future Trading Commission. Both senators from Louisiana — Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican David Vitter — voted against Bowen. Democrats supplied all 48 “yes” votes. Landrieu and Democrats Bill Nelson, of Florida, and Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire, and independent Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, joined Vitter and 41 other Republicans voting no. The CFTC had nothing to do with the Stanford swindle, a Ponzi scheme in which an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 investors in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Covington and other parts of Louisiana were swindled out of between $500 million and $1 billion. That equates to an average loss of $250,000 to $1 million each. More in the New Orleans Advocate here.