FOX Business sues SEC over Stanford

By Kleinheider Posted on March 24, 2009 at 8:58 am

From TVB:

Fox Business Network is suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to respond to an expedited request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the news franchise alleged.

The initial request, filed on Feb.26, 2009, sought records of potential securities violations by Stanford Financials Group, its affiliates and its chairman, R. Allen Stanford. The request included the commission’s response to complaints and tips, and any resulting actions.

The SEC charged Stanford last month with running an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

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Tags: broadcasting, cable TV, Fox Business Network, Freedom of Information Act, investment management, litigation, media, R. Allen Stanford, Securities and Exchange Commission, Stanford Financial Group Inc.  

SEC files amended complaint against Stanford

By Kleinheider Posted on February 27, 2009 at 7:00 pm

From the Commercial Appeal:

Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission released an amended complaint against Stanford and its top executives, R. Allen Stanford, James M. Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt.

The complaint alleges that “for at least a decade,” Davis and Allen Stanford, through the companies they control under the Stanford umbrella, “executed a massive Ponzi scheme.”

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Tags: financial institutions, financial regulation, governmental investigations, Ponzi schemes, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Stanford Financial Group Inc., Stanford International Bank Ltd.  

Feds raid Memphis financial service firm office

By Kleinheider Posted on February 17, 2009 at 11:23 am

From the Commercial Appeal:

FBI agents began removing boxes of documents from Stanford Financial Group Inc.’s Memphis office at the Crescent Center this morning.

The Houston-based financial services firm is under investigation by several federal agencies who say the company’s certificates of deposits are paying interest rates that are more than twice the national average.

Update: More big-picture info on what is now said to be an $8 billion fraud scheme from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

And a link to the last public-company quarterly report filed by local golf equipment maker ForeFront Group, where a Stanford unit is listed as owning 81 percent of the company.

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Tags: FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, financial institutions, financial regulation, governmental investigations, raid, Securities and Exchange Commission, Stanford Financial Group Inc.  

Securities trouble for largest shareholder of local golf company

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on February 12, 2009 at 8:55 pm

Stanford International Bank, which as of last spring owned more than 80 percent of the shares of Brentwood-based ForeFront Holdings, is being investigated by securities regulators over the sale of certificates of deposit with a remarkably consistent performance record.

“That type of return ignores the business cycle,” said L. Burke Files, principal of Financial Examinations & Evaluations Inc., a Tempe, Arizona-based financial investigation firm. “His returns fall outside the bell curve of probability.”

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Tags: 5% owners, banking, certificates of deposit, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, financial regulation, ForeFront Holdings Inc., investment management, Securities and Exchange Commission, sports business, Stanford Financial Group Inc., Stanford International Bank Ltd.