Stanfraud?

Sir Allen Stanford, the man who brought excitement and a lot of money to the game of Cricket, West Indies Cricket especially, has been charged with fraud. According to The Gleaner, on Tuesday February 17, 2009 the US Securities and Exchange Commission formally charged Stanford and three of his companies with "massive" fraud centred around high interest rate CDs. The Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, alleges that Stanford International Bank sold about US$8 billion of so-called certificates of deposit to investors by promising "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates." Reuters has reported that the US authorities have since frozen Stanford's assets have been frozen and a federal judge has appointed a receiver "to take possession and control of defendants' assets for the protection of defendants' victims."

Standford, to the still existing cricket fans, is a well known name as he is the founder of the Standford 20/20 Cricket tournament. this competition seems to overshadow even the Cricket World Cup due to its heavy prizes running up into several million dollars. There is no doubt that the West Indies Cricket Board WCIB and West Indies Cricket have benefited from the monetary inputs of Stanford. Standford's 20/20 Tournament brought something new to West Indies cricket and was seen by many as a last ditch hope to revive the dwindling love of Cricket in the region and to pump some well needed money into the coffers of the WCIB. However, with this new development, it seems that all this heavy funding will come to a screeching halt and the rich Stanford 20/20 Cricket will fail to exist. Already the England and Wales Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board have immediately suspended all their ongoing negotiations with Sir Allen Stanford and his corporate group. Which simply means no more Stanford money for West Indies Cricket. Does this mean even more bad times for Cricket in the region? However, Cricket is not the only sport that will suffer from the loss of Standford's fat money, as his sports financing transcends to football (soccer) and golf.

Putting Sport aside though, this charge has serious implications for many of his investors around the world and even closer to home, here in the Caribbean. It is also frightening, as this is yet another major multi-billion dollar fraud charge coming just on the heels of the Madoff scandal. This leads us to wonder who is next? Which financial entity will be next? How many other companies and their heads have been playing around with our hard earned saving? I see a very frightening trend, and now I'm wondering if my money is just safer under my mattress.

Source: http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=6523 | http://uk.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUKN1737429520090218