Deadline for Stanford investors less than a month away

Antigua (Antigua Observer): The Stanford International Victims Group (SIVG) is reminding non-US investors of the approaching deadline to file their claims for compensation. February 16, 2011 is the date when the statute of limitations expires for claims to be filed under the US Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The SIVG represents investors from outside the US who were burned in Allen Stanford’s failed $7 billion Ponzi scheme, for which the businessman now languishes in a Texas prison awaiting trial.

The international victims have so far met with little success in their attempts to seek compensation via the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). This is partly because they are vigorously opposed by the Stanford Victims Coalition (SVC), which is looking after the interests of only the US investors. SVC holds the view that interventions on behalf of the international victims distracts attention from the primary US cause and is likely to delay settlement. The SIPC itself is also resistant to the idea of paying out compensation to the international victims, most of whom were not registered with the broker that is recognised as legitimate by US authorities in this matter, namely the Stanford Group Company (SCG).

Only 8,000 of the 13 to 20,000 Stanford investors are eligible for cover under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) – which governs the SIPC – and these are almost all in the US. The SIPC offers compensation only up to a limit of US $500,000, regardless of the amount that may have been lost in Stanford’s alleged fraud. On the other hand, a successful claim under the SIPA would guarantee full compensation. The International Investors Group is urging non-US victims (including those in Antigua & Barbuda) to contact their attorneys as soon as possible, or the attorney submitting claims on behalf of international investors, Kachroo Legal Services of Cambridge, Massachusetts. (January 25, 2011)