In $7.2 Billion Stanford Financial Broup Ponzi Scheme.
Auditor Materially and Maliciously Co-Conspired with the Stanford Financial Group
to Facilitate and Perpetuate the Second Largest Ponzi Scheme in History.
A class-action lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court seeks to recover more than $7 billion from BDO International, the world’s fifth largest network of independent public accounting firms, for its critical role in the Stanford Financial Group Ponzi scheme
Beginning in 1995, BDO provided audit, tax and other professional services to the Houston-based Stanford Financial Group of Companies (SFG), including Stanford Group Company (SGC), an SEC-registered broker dealer and investment advisor that once had more than 30 offices throughout the U.S.; Stanford Trust Company (STC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Stanford Fiduciary Investor Services (SFIS) in Miami, Florida; and Stanford International Bank, Ltd. (SIBL), an offshore bank chartered and domiciled in Antigua.
In February 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged SFG had engaged in “massive, ongoing fraud” and took the global network of companies into receivership.
Click here for Complaint Filed.
Representative Gary Ackerman introduces H.R. 1987 – While we have not yet seen the actual bill, it is our understanding that this is a reintroduction of the bill Congressman Ackerman introduced last year, in that it would stop the clawback for direct investors and gives SIPC coverage to some indirect investors. Some changes include a new definition of net equity that includes the time value of money; new negligence language focused solely on negligent registered professional investment advisers; and trustee oversight that includes review of trustee compensation by the bankruptcy judge and annual auditing of the trustee under certain circumstances. Stay tuned here for more to come.
A member who had the opportunity to attend the May 13th Oversight and Investigations Hearing on “The Stanford Ponzi Scheme: Lessons for Protecting Investors from the Next Seucrities Fraud”, has been kind enough to summarize his observations below:I’ve been lobbying my Congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick, for quite some time now so when he invited my mother and me to Washington for the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearings on “The Stanford Ponzi Scheme: Lessons for Protecting Investors from the Next Securities Fraud,” We jumped at the opportunity.
Here are some of my observations: (click here to continue reading…)
A former Securities and Exchange Commission official who was faulted for blocking attempts to investigate jailed money manager R. Allen Stanford may be the target of federal criminal inquiry, SEC officials told lawmakers Friday. Read WSJ article here.
If the government’s assertions are true, Allen Stanford presided over a Ponzi scheme second only to Bernard Madoff’s in U.S. history. Stanford also sought to cultivate influence in Washington. Most of his campaign contributions occurred in two periods when his interests in legislation peaked: 2001-2002 and 2005-2008. Read Washington Post report here.
While Allen Stanford was flying high, he and his colleagues spent more than $10 million on campaign contributions and lobbying payments to curry favor in Washington. But all that money was diverted from investors in what authorities have called an elaborate Ponzi scheme, second only to Bernard Madoff’s in U.S. history, according to court documents. Read more in the Washington Post here.
The Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Hearing – archived webcast and witness testimonies can be found here
A former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official who has been accused of repeatedly blocking efforts to investigate R. Allen Stanford, the Houston financier charged with running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is the subject of a federal criminal inquiry for having done legal work for Mr. Stanford after leaving the S.E.C., government officials said Friday. Read NY Times article here.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, criticized for missing R. Allen Stanford’s alleged $7 billion fraud, said it will decide “in the near future” whether victims should collect federal brokerage insurance. Read San Francisco Chronicle article here.
Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, has been scheduled to go to trial this September, according to court records. Read Reuters report here.
