Cricket tycoon Stanford found by FBI
- 00:02:10
- ITN
Cricket tycoon Stanford found by FBI
FBI agents have tracked down the missing Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford as he was driving with his wife in the US state of Virginia. They served legal papers to the cricket entrepreneur alleging a multibillion-dollar fraud. Stanford had not been seen since being charged with frauds totalling £6.5 billion ($9.2bn) that spooked investors around the world. The 58-year-old and two other executives are accused of fraudulently selling high-yield certificates of deposit in a scheme that stretched around the world. The complaint was made by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a court in Dallas on Tuesday. But they were unable to serve papers to Stanford in person after he disappeared. The papers served on him relate to civil proceedings so he has not been placed under arrest. A law enforcement official said Stanford was making arrangements to surrender his passport. He holds dual US-Antiguan citizenship. The tycoon has had his assets frozen and been placed under a temporary restraining order. Regulators accuse the tycoon of fraud "of a shocking magnitude" relating to an $8 billion (£5.6 billion) certificate of deposit scheme and a separate $1.2 billion (£840 billion) investment vehicle. It follows a probe into Stanford and his firms, Stanford International Bank (SIB), Stanford Group Company and Stanford Capitol Management. In the UK, the Serious Fraud Office is monitoring a possible British link after media reports that Stanford's books were audited in Britain. "We're so pleased and thankful to the lord that he's alive," Stanford's stepmother Billie Stanford said. She and his father, James, live in Mexia, Texas. The scandal has emerged hard on the heels of allegations that Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff carried out a $50 billion fraud. Mexico's banking regulator said it was investigating a local Stanford bank unit for possible violation of banking laws. In Caracas, Venezuela, the government seized Stanford Bank Venezuela, one of the country's smallest commercial banks, to stem massive online withdrawals and said there would be an immediate sale of the bank. Another Andean nation, Ecuador, said it was seizing two local Stanford units, a brokerage house and a fiduciary firm. Peru's securities regulator suspended the operations of a local Stanford unit. Reports in the US suggest the FBI and others have been investigating whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for a Mexican cartel.
ITN | February 20, 2009
