February 25, 2009

Brodner’s Cartoon du Jour: Crisis Club: Robert “Ponzi” Stanford

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The owner of Antigua and the Stanford International Bank, pig heaven for offshore deposits from clients seeking a safe tax haven (seen here with his cricket team). The government of Antigua was more than happy to have this rich Texan move in and take over their failing bank. Now he’s the lord of St. John’s with zero accountability. He hasn’t been charged yet but the SEC can’t find the $8 billion in assets he says he has. When the US government started pushing legislation for accountability in offshore banks Stanford hired a lobbying firm in DC and began donating hundreds of thousands to Democrats and Republicans. For some strange reason investigations by the SEC have been stalled over the years! He’s given more than $2.4 million to federal candidates since 2000. These include Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), $45,900 and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), $41,375 (plus $10,000 in expenses). Now Antigua is falling on hard times and the spotlight is falling at last on Bobby. Smile. From photo by Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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