Federal regulators charged R. Allen Stanford and three of his companies with a "massive" fraud. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, Stanford International Bank sold about $8 billion of so-called certificates of deposit to investors by promising "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates."
There are a number of surprising revelations buried in the complaint. We highlight seven of the most shocking below:
1. Stanford posted identical returns two years in a row, in 1995 and 1996, indicating the fraud has been going on for at least 13 years.
2. Stanford and CFO James Davis have "wholly failed" to cooperate with the SEC investigation.
3. There was no army of analysts combing through Stanford's multi-billion-dollar portfolio. Rather, the only research conducted on companies in which he was investing came from Stanford himself, and CFO James Davis.
4. Stanford told at least one client that the SEC was freezing CDs, a blatant impossibility.
5. Stanford lost money from the Madoff ponzi scheme, "despite the bank's public assurances to the contrary." One analyst puts the loss at $400,000.
6. Despite repeated calls from the SEC to Stanford's Antigua-based accounting firm, the accountants never answered their phones.
7. And as if the SEC couldn't put it any clearer, Stanford's public statements about its investments "are false."
Read the entire SEC complaint below.
The Huffington Post intends to dig deeper into this story, and we need your help. If you have invested with Stanford or know about the bank's business practices, we want to hear from you. Email us at submissions+Stanford@huffingtonpost.com.
If you have invested with Stanford, let us know about your returns on investment. Have you tried to get your money back and been rebuffed? What have you been told about the bank's portfolio? How long have you been invested with him?
If you know Stanford personally, tell us about him.
Email your insights to submissions+Stanford@huffingtonpost.com