By Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Feb 17, 2012
R. Allen Stanford was furious to learn that his finance chief, James Davis,
forged his name to a 2007 employee memo abolishing a department Stanford
created to "reel in" expenses, a former executive testified.
"He called me at home at 11 or 12 one evening, and he was very mad," Linda
Wingfield, Stanford's former executive director of special projects, told
jurors today at Stanford's criminal fraud trial in federal court in Houston.
"He said he did not sign it."
Wingfield, who held a number of executive positions at Stanford's companies
over 10 years, testified that Davis refused to give the boss access to a
corporate computer system with Stanford Financial Group Co.'s financial
records. Testifying as a defense witness, she said Davis also ignored or
circumvented policies Stanford instituted to clamp down on expenditures.
"He fought us from day one, a department set up by the chairman to try to
control costs," Wingfield said of Davis. "Mr. Davis was always refusing."
Wingfield's testimony may bolster Stanford's defense claim that it was
Davis, not Stanford, who ran the financial services empire and engineered a
fraud that cost investors more than $7 billion. Davis pleaded guilty and
testified as a government witness earlier in the trial, which is concluding
its fourth week.
Airlines, Cricket
Prosecutors accuse Stanford of stealing more than $2 billion from
certificates of deposit at his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
Instead of holding investor funds in safe assets as he promised, Stanford
used their money to fund an extravagant lifestyle and risky ventures
including Caribbean airlines, real estate projects and cricket tournaments,
prosecutors say.
Stanford, 61, has been imprisoned as a flight risk since his indictment in
June 2009. If convicted of the most serious charges, he faces as many as 20
years in prison.
Wingfield, who also ran some of Stanford side ventures, testified today via
a video link from federal court in Orlando, Florida. She said she was too
ill to travel.
Robert Scardino, Stanford's lawyer, asked Wingfield who controlled "all the
financial issues, including the treasury, accounting, internal audits and
investments" at Stanford's companies.
'Nobody Else'
"Mr. Davis -- and the insurance, too," she said. "There was nobody else who
handled all the books."
Wingfield told jurors she believed Stanford's court- appointed receiver
duplicated efforts and wasted money during the "chaotic" period after the
businesses were seized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in
February 2009.
More than 40 Stanford investors crowded into the courtroom today to mark the
third anniversary of the SEC crackdown.
The group had planned to wear stickers to court until U.S. District Judge
David Hittner asked them not to do so, for fear of distracting the jury.
Houston investor Cassie Wilkinson, 63, said she lost $500,000 on Stanford
CDs and has attended roughly 80 percent of the trial. A video shown to
jurors yesterday, depicting a luxury Antigua resort Stanford was developing
with investor money, was the toughest evidence she's seen yet, she said.
"He took our money and built another country with it," Wilkinson said during
a break in testimony. "I was fighting back tears to see the lavish way he
lived his life, and now we're left to try to scrape through the rest of
ours."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Costa spoke with some of the investors during
court breaks. "This is who we're doing this for," he said outside of court.
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Friday, 17 February 2012
Stanford Operations Run by CFO Davis, Not Boss, Manager Says
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) --
R. Allen Stanford left daily operating decisions to his finance chief, who volunteered to "lay himself off" for a $650,000 lump-sum pay out as regulators were closing in on the company in February 2009, a former manager testified.
"We were in the midst of a crisis, and I told him it would look strange if we lay off our global CFO," Joan Stack, former global human resources manager at Stanford Financial Group, said she told finance chief James M.
Davis. "He was the person I felt made the day-to-day decisions."
Davis replied that he would "stay behind the scenes" and continue running the firm, Stack told jurors yesterday in federal court in Houston at Stanford's criminal fraud trial. In exchange for appearing to step aside, Davis asked for an upfront payment of 65 present of his 2009 salary, she said.
Davis made this proposal "at a very fast-moving time" when "cash flow problems" were causing Stanford's firm to cancel 2008 year-end bonuses and lay off half its employees, Stack testified. "We were trying to get to a point where costs would be reduced to the point the organization would survive," Stack said.
Stanford Memo
Stack told jurors that a Stanford memo to employees, sent several days before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seized the company on suspicion of fraud, was done partly at her request. Prosecutors told jurors that the message, which tried to reassure staff the offshore bank remained strong, is the basis of one of Stanford's fraud counts.
"I told him, 'People need to hear from you,'" Stack said. "A lot of people were telling him that. He wasn't visible. He wasn't responding. We told him people are scared, and they need to hear from a leader."
At the time the memo was sent, Stack said, Stanford was often absent and difficult to reach.
"Mr. Stanford would be absent for a month, five or six weeks," she said.
"Then suddenly he'd come in and get hyper- focused on some project. Then he'd just disappear for a few more weeks."
Promoting Cricket
Stack said he appeared more focused on promoting cricket and building a high-end island resort than on running his financial services empire.
"He was very excited, almost like a kid at Christmas," when discussing the island resort project, she said.
Stack testified that Davis and Laura Pendergest Holt, Stanford's investment chief, routinely hired unqualified relatives and fellow church members to staff most positions in the Memphis, Tennessee, research division that oversaw the bank's multibillion-dollar investment portfolio.
"They were family members who had no experience in doing what we'd hired them to do," she said.
Earlier witnesses told jurors that Davis hired one of his farm hands to analyse commodities and his preacher to advise the company on Middle Eastern affairs. Holt also invested about $2 million of the bank's portfolio in a hedge fund run by her husband, a former personal trainer.
Broken Laptops
Prosecutors have said Stanford wasn't an absentee boss and kept in close touch electronically with executives while he travelled.
Sohil Merchant, Stanford's former information technology manager, told jurors under prosecutors' questioning that he replaced the financier's personal laptop computer 20 to 30 times from 2005 to 2008. Merchant said the financier broke his personal laptops so regularly that the technology department maintained a standing replacement order.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Costa asked Merchant if Stanford destroyed his laptop "through physical abuse, such as dropping it in the water, throwing it against a wall." Merchant said that was his understanding. He said he sometimes delivered the replacements on one of Stanford's private jets.
Jurors watched much of a 30-minute promotional video Stanford created to promote his planned ultra-luxury resort, which he called Islands Club.
Giselle James, the Stanford employee who marketed the project, testified the resort was intended for vacationers who could pay a $50 million initiation fee and $15 million in annual dues for access to 30 villas planned for a private island off Antigua's coast.
Islands Club
Jurors, watching the video without any sound, saw footage of Antigua's lush foliage and pristine beaches intermingled with interviews of New York-based architects who had worked on the project and Antiguan celebrities, including several cricket stars. Prosecutors requested that the sound be turned off to avoid improper influence on the jury.
James testified Stanford had constructed yacht-docking facilities, desalinization plants, a private airstrip and hangar, refuelling facilities and other infrastructure to support his luxury resort. James said a marine research facility was also part of the planned development.
"The prosecution said it was just a dream, but this was real bricks and mortar, wasn't it?" Robert Scardino, Stanford's lawyer, asked James.
"I walked there," James testified. "I saw it."
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) --
R. Allen Stanford left daily operating decisions to his finance chief, who volunteered to "lay himself off" for a $650,000 lump-sum pay out as regulators were closing in on the company in February 2009, a former manager testified.
"We were in the midst of a crisis, and I told him it would look strange if we lay off our global CFO," Joan Stack, former global human resources manager at Stanford Financial Group, said she told finance chief James M.
Davis. "He was the person I felt made the day-to-day decisions."
Davis replied that he would "stay behind the scenes" and continue running the firm, Stack told jurors yesterday in federal court in Houston at Stanford's criminal fraud trial. In exchange for appearing to step aside, Davis asked for an upfront payment of 65 present of his 2009 salary, she said.
Davis made this proposal "at a very fast-moving time" when "cash flow problems" were causing Stanford's firm to cancel 2008 year-end bonuses and lay off half its employees, Stack testified. "We were trying to get to a point where costs would be reduced to the point the organization would survive," Stack said.
Stanford Memo
Stack told jurors that a Stanford memo to employees, sent several days before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seized the company on suspicion of fraud, was done partly at her request. Prosecutors told jurors that the message, which tried to reassure staff the offshore bank remained strong, is the basis of one of Stanford's fraud counts.
"I told him, 'People need to hear from you,'" Stack said. "A lot of people were telling him that. He wasn't visible. He wasn't responding. We told him people are scared, and they need to hear from a leader."
At the time the memo was sent, Stack said, Stanford was often absent and difficult to reach.
"Mr. Stanford would be absent for a month, five or six weeks," she said.
"Then suddenly he'd come in and get hyper- focused on some project. Then he'd just disappear for a few more weeks."
Promoting Cricket
Stack said he appeared more focused on promoting cricket and building a high-end island resort than on running his financial services empire.
"He was very excited, almost like a kid at Christmas," when discussing the island resort project, she said.
Stack testified that Davis and Laura Pendergest Holt, Stanford's investment chief, routinely hired unqualified relatives and fellow church members to staff most positions in the Memphis, Tennessee, research division that oversaw the bank's multibillion-dollar investment portfolio.
"They were family members who had no experience in doing what we'd hired them to do," she said.
Earlier witnesses told jurors that Davis hired one of his farm hands to analyse commodities and his preacher to advise the company on Middle Eastern affairs. Holt also invested about $2 million of the bank's portfolio in a hedge fund run by her husband, a former personal trainer.
Broken Laptops
Prosecutors have said Stanford wasn't an absentee boss and kept in close touch electronically with executives while he travelled.
Sohil Merchant, Stanford's former information technology manager, told jurors under prosecutors' questioning that he replaced the financier's personal laptop computer 20 to 30 times from 2005 to 2008. Merchant said the financier broke his personal laptops so regularly that the technology department maintained a standing replacement order.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Costa asked Merchant if Stanford destroyed his laptop "through physical abuse, such as dropping it in the water, throwing it against a wall." Merchant said that was his understanding. He said he sometimes delivered the replacements on one of Stanford's private jets.
Jurors watched much of a 30-minute promotional video Stanford created to promote his planned ultra-luxury resort, which he called Islands Club.
Giselle James, the Stanford employee who marketed the project, testified the resort was intended for vacationers who could pay a $50 million initiation fee and $15 million in annual dues for access to 30 villas planned for a private island off Antigua's coast.
Islands Club
Jurors, watching the video without any sound, saw footage of Antigua's lush foliage and pristine beaches intermingled with interviews of New York-based architects who had worked on the project and Antiguan celebrities, including several cricket stars. Prosecutors requested that the sound be turned off to avoid improper influence on the jury.
James testified Stanford had constructed yacht-docking facilities, desalinization plants, a private airstrip and hangar, refuelling facilities and other infrastructure to support his luxury resort. James said a marine research facility was also part of the planned development.
"The prosecution said it was just a dream, but this was real bricks and mortar, wasn't it?" Robert Scardino, Stanford's lawyer, asked James.
"I walked there," James testified. "I saw it."
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Stanford used CD funds for cricket, jets
Anna Driver
Reuters
4:45 p.m. CST, February 1, 2012
Allen Stanford funnelled $2 billion of investor money from his offshore bank to pay operating expenses at his other companies, including money-losing airlines and his cricket concerns, a former Stanford Financial Group accountant said on Wednesday.
Stanford, 61, is on trial in federal court in Houston for leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from his offshore bank in Antigua in what prosecutors call one of the largest white-collar crimes since Bernard Madoff. The Texas financier has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Henry Amadio, a former accountant for Stanford in Houston, told jurors he created a top-secret report for Stanford tracking the flow of $2 billion from Stanford International Bank in Antigua to other entities he controlled. The funds were spent by Stanford over a number of years leading up to 2009, when the government seized the businesses.
"There's no doubt that those amounts came from Stanford International Bank," Amadio told the jury of five women and 10 men. He compiled the reports using wire transfer records provided by Stanford's treasurers, he said.
The funds, marked as loans at the offshore bank, were never repaid by Stanford, the accountant said.
Prosecutors accuse Stanford of misleading investors who bought certificates of deposit (CDs) from his bank in Antigua. The investors were told their deposits were invested in safe, liquid investments.
Instead, the government alleges, the funds were used to pay for Stanford's yachts and private jets or were put into illiquid entities like private companies.
More than $300 million in deposits were used to pay salary and expenses for Stanford's now defunct money-losing Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun airlines, Amadio said.
Millions of dollars of deposits were also spent on Stanford's passion to promote the sport of cricket in the Caribbean, he said.
Amadio, who worked for Stanford from 2002 until 2009 and has not been charged in the case, said keeping the reports under wraps was a top priority. He was told he would lose his job if he shared the data with anyone.
In the materials he prepared, he was asked by former Chief Financial Officer James Davis to refer to the Antigua bank as "the company down south."
"Everything was to be on a need-to-know basis," Amadio testified.
His reports were also stored on an external hard drive that the accounting department nicknamed, "the football." In 2006, "the football" was moved to Antigua from Houston, Amadio told the jury.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission started an investigation of Stanford CDs in 2006, Gregg Costa, the U.S. attorney leading the case, said.
Mark Kuhrt, who is also charged in the alleged Ponzi scheme and was Amadio's boss at Stanford Financial Group, attended the trial for the first time since it began last week.
Kuhrt shifted in his seat as Amadio told the jury he told his former boss he was concerned about the growing amount of investor money that was being used to pay for Stanford's other businesses.
"He was concerned too," Amadio said.
Reuters
4:45 p.m. CST, February 1, 2012
Allen Stanford funnelled $2 billion of investor money from his offshore bank to pay operating expenses at his other companies, including money-losing airlines and his cricket concerns, a former Stanford Financial Group accountant said on Wednesday.
Stanford, 61, is on trial in federal court in Houston for leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from his offshore bank in Antigua in what prosecutors call one of the largest white-collar crimes since Bernard Madoff. The Texas financier has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Henry Amadio, a former accountant for Stanford in Houston, told jurors he created a top-secret report for Stanford tracking the flow of $2 billion from Stanford International Bank in Antigua to other entities he controlled. The funds were spent by Stanford over a number of years leading up to 2009, when the government seized the businesses.
"There's no doubt that those amounts came from Stanford International Bank," Amadio told the jury of five women and 10 men. He compiled the reports using wire transfer records provided by Stanford's treasurers, he said.
The funds, marked as loans at the offshore bank, were never repaid by Stanford, the accountant said.
Prosecutors accuse Stanford of misleading investors who bought certificates of deposit (CDs) from his bank in Antigua. The investors were told their deposits were invested in safe, liquid investments.
Instead, the government alleges, the funds were used to pay for Stanford's yachts and private jets or were put into illiquid entities like private companies.
More than $300 million in deposits were used to pay salary and expenses for Stanford's now defunct money-losing Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun airlines, Amadio said.
Millions of dollars of deposits were also spent on Stanford's passion to promote the sport of cricket in the Caribbean, he said.
Amadio, who worked for Stanford from 2002 until 2009 and has not been charged in the case, said keeping the reports under wraps was a top priority. He was told he would lose his job if he shared the data with anyone.
In the materials he prepared, he was asked by former Chief Financial Officer James Davis to refer to the Antigua bank as "the company down south."
"Everything was to be on a need-to-know basis," Amadio testified.
His reports were also stored on an external hard drive that the accounting department nicknamed, "the football." In 2006, "the football" was moved to Antigua from Houston, Amadio told the jury.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission started an investigation of Stanford CDs in 2006, Gregg Costa, the U.S. attorney leading the case, said.
Mark Kuhrt, who is also charged in the alleged Ponzi scheme and was Amadio's boss at Stanford Financial Group, attended the trial for the first time since it began last week.
Kuhrt shifted in his seat as Amadio told the jury he told his former boss he was concerned about the growing amount of investor money that was being used to pay for Stanford's other businesses.
"He was concerned too," Amadio said.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Records Show Meeks Sought Favours for Pal from "Ponzi" Tycoon
By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
The e-mail was flagged “Importance: High.” A top executive at the Stanford Financial Group wanted an answer.
“Have we an update on Antigua?” demanded Lionel C. Johnson, a senior VP.
“Greg Meeks and Ed Ahmad have both called again this afternoon inquiring about the status of Ahmad’s VIP-box invitations.”
The Feb. 19, 2008, e-mail, obtained by The Post, was addressed to Yolanda Suarez, chief counsel for the company run by now-disgraced billionaire banker Allen Stanford. It and other insistent messages during that period show Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks was determined to get his pal, Edul Ahmad, invited to a Caribbean cricket match so he could meet another Meeks buddy, Stanford.
The urgent pleas were made a year after Ahmad handed Meeks $40,000.
Stanford would also throw cash at the congressman a few months later -- hosting a lavish fund-raiser in St. Croix in July 2008, complete with Cristal champagne and caviar, that raised at least $13,800 for Meeks’ campaign committee.
Now the circle of friends threatens to become a circle of felons.
Stanford, 61, is awaiting trial on charges he engineered a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Ahmad, 43, was indicted this summer in New York, accused of falsifying $50 million in loan applications. And Meeks, 57, is under investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the $40,000 Ahmad payment and is at the center of a separate federal probe for his role in a Queens nonprofit that allegedly stiffed Hurricane Katrina victims.
Meeks, an eight-term congressman, has a penchant for hobnobbing with shady characters and had few qualms about accepting their cash -- or doing them favors.
Stanford, a flamboyant businessman from Texas who once ran a bodybuilding gym in Waco, took over the family financial business. He also started his own bank in 1985 on the island of Montserrat and later moved his operations to Antigua. Forbes ranked him as the 205th-richest American in 2008, with an estimated worth of $2.2 billion.
Meeks’ relationship with Stanford dates back to at least 2003, when the congressman and his wife traveled to Antigua and Barbados on a junket sponsored by the Inter-American Economic Council, a Washington, DC, nonprofit backed by Stanford. It would be the first of many trips to sunny climes that Meeks and his wife, Simone-Marie, would take on the nonprofit’s dime.
Meeks sits on both the House’s Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees and belonged to the Caribbean Caucus, an informal group of lawmakers Stanford sought to woo.
The economic development of the Caribbean, and the US Virgin Islands in particular, has been Congressman Meeks’ focus for over a decade,” Johnson, an executive in charge of government affairs at Stanford Group, wrote in an e-mail exhorting company employees to attend the July 2008 fund-raiser. Ticket prices began at $1,000 for the soirée at Stanford’s hilltop compound in St. Croix.
Eighty guests dined on lobster, caviar and foie gras and sipped Cristal and Mondavi Opus 1, a Napa Valley red that retails for $200 a bottle. An organizer of the party said the cost of the catering alone topped $25,000.
But, records show, the Meeks campaign reimbursed Stanford for only $3,591.
Stanford company employees donated $7,200, and Stanford himself gave $4,600. The company’s PAC kicked in another $2,000. The total take for the fund-raiser appears to be $34,000, according to campaign finance records.
The Texas receiver for the victims of Stanford’s alleged Ponzi scheme is seeking to claw back the $6,600 donated by Stanford and the company’s PAC, along with money Stanford gave to other pols, including Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel.
“Representative Meeks has not returned any of the money requested. The receiver asked Representative Meeks to join the dozens of other politicians and political committees who have returned their Stanford-related contributions,” said Kevin Sadler, the attorney for the receiver.
Sadler said he is in talks with Rangel’s lawyer to return the money, which included $8,300 to the Rangel campaign and $2,500 to his National Leadership PAC. Both Meeks and Rangel have said in the past that they gave the donations to charity.
In 2006, Stanford called in a chit for his generosity, asking Meeks to use his influence with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The billionaire wanted Meeks to tell Chavez to begin a criminal investigation into a whistleblower at Stanford’s Venezuelan bank.
Meeks allegedly was heard on a speakerphone telling Stanford he would intervene with Chavez, according to the Miami Herald.
Meeks was soon in Venezuela visiting Chavez, ostensibly to thank him for providing cheap home heating oil to Americans. A year later, the whistleblower was arrested.
While Meeks was meeting with Chavez, there were already grave concerns among US government officials about Stanford’s reputation. The US ambassador to Barbados attended a “Legends of Cricket” breakfast along with Stanford in Bridgetown and tried to avoid being photographed in public with him.
“His companies are rumored to engage in bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation,” read a May 2006 diplomatic cable about the breakfast meeting, released last month by WikiLeaks.
When Stanford was knighted in Antigua in 2006, the title was so controversial that the country’s prime minister called the honor “most unfortunate.”
Stanford was indicted in June 2009 on charges of perpetrating a $7 billion fraud by selling certificates of deposit that promised inflated rates of return. He is currently being held at a medical center in the feds’ Butner, NC, prison, the same lockup holding Ponzi king Bernie Madoff. Stanford was declared incompetent to stand trial in January because of an addiction to prescription medication, but he is expected to be re-evaluated.
Meeks refused to answer any questions about his relationship with Stanford, or why he agreed to introduce Ahmad to the billionaire.
Both men have an interest in cricket. Stanford owned a cricket team and stadium, and Ahmad sponsored his own cricket competition in New York.
Meeks and Ahmad are longtime friends. The congressman held after-hours meetings with the real-estate broker at his Queens district office, and Ahmad boasted that he had his own personal political representation.
Meeks claims the $40,000 he pocketed from Ahmad was a loan, but a House ethics panel said it appeared to be a gift. Meeks paid back the money in 2010, but only after federal investigators questioned Ahmad about it.
Like Stanford, Ahmad’s businesses were long dogged by allegations of scandal, including predatory lending and forged documentation. State authorities launched five probes into his real-estate operations between 2006 and 2008.
Ahmad, who is currently out on $2.5 million bail and prohibited from traveling to his native Guyana, faces up to 30 years in prison. The government has said that additional charges or more defendants are likely in his case.
Kings of Queens
Allen Stanford
Texas billionaire in jail awaiting trial on charges he ran an $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Accused of selling certificates of deposit promising improbably high interest rates. Big-time political donor, whose nonprofit Inter-American Economic Council hosted Caribbean junkets for members of Congress, including Meeks. Held a 2008 St. Croix fund-raiser for Meeks.
Congressman Gregory Meeks
An eight-term Democratic congressman representing Queens, Meeks is the subject of a House ethics probe for accepting a $40,000 payment from Queens businessman Edul Ahmad in 2007. Also under federal investigation for his role in a Queens charity. Arranged for Ahmad to meet banker Allen Stanford, for whom Meeks did favors, including personally lobbying Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Edul Ahmad
Queens real-estate broker and catering hall owner indicted on charges of mortgage fraud. Accused of falsifying $50 million in loan applications. Currently out on $2.5 million bail. Denied permission by the feds to travel to his native Guyana. Longtime friend of Meeks. Sought introduction Stanford through Meeks.
The e-mail was flagged “Importance: High.” A top executive at the Stanford Financial Group wanted an answer.
“Have we an update on Antigua?” demanded Lionel C. Johnson, a senior VP.
“Greg Meeks and Ed Ahmad have both called again this afternoon inquiring about the status of Ahmad’s VIP-box invitations.”
The Feb. 19, 2008, e-mail, obtained by The Post, was addressed to Yolanda Suarez, chief counsel for the company run by now-disgraced billionaire banker Allen Stanford. It and other insistent messages during that period show Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks was determined to get his pal, Edul Ahmad, invited to a Caribbean cricket match so he could meet another Meeks buddy, Stanford.
The urgent pleas were made a year after Ahmad handed Meeks $40,000.
Stanford would also throw cash at the congressman a few months later -- hosting a lavish fund-raiser in St. Croix in July 2008, complete with Cristal champagne and caviar, that raised at least $13,800 for Meeks’ campaign committee.
Now the circle of friends threatens to become a circle of felons.
Stanford, 61, is awaiting trial on charges he engineered a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Ahmad, 43, was indicted this summer in New York, accused of falsifying $50 million in loan applications. And Meeks, 57, is under investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the $40,000 Ahmad payment and is at the center of a separate federal probe for his role in a Queens nonprofit that allegedly stiffed Hurricane Katrina victims.
Meeks, an eight-term congressman, has a penchant for hobnobbing with shady characters and had few qualms about accepting their cash -- or doing them favors.
Stanford, a flamboyant businessman from Texas who once ran a bodybuilding gym in Waco, took over the family financial business. He also started his own bank in 1985 on the island of Montserrat and later moved his operations to Antigua. Forbes ranked him as the 205th-richest American in 2008, with an estimated worth of $2.2 billion.
Meeks’ relationship with Stanford dates back to at least 2003, when the congressman and his wife traveled to Antigua and Barbados on a junket sponsored by the Inter-American Economic Council, a Washington, DC, nonprofit backed by Stanford. It would be the first of many trips to sunny climes that Meeks and his wife, Simone-Marie, would take on the nonprofit’s dime.
Meeks sits on both the House’s Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees and belonged to the Caribbean Caucus, an informal group of lawmakers Stanford sought to woo.
The economic development of the Caribbean, and the US Virgin Islands in particular, has been Congressman Meeks’ focus for over a decade,” Johnson, an executive in charge of government affairs at Stanford Group, wrote in an e-mail exhorting company employees to attend the July 2008 fund-raiser. Ticket prices began at $1,000 for the soirée at Stanford’s hilltop compound in St. Croix.
Eighty guests dined on lobster, caviar and foie gras and sipped Cristal and Mondavi Opus 1, a Napa Valley red that retails for $200 a bottle. An organizer of the party said the cost of the catering alone topped $25,000.
But, records show, the Meeks campaign reimbursed Stanford for only $3,591.
Stanford company employees donated $7,200, and Stanford himself gave $4,600. The company’s PAC kicked in another $2,000. The total take for the fund-raiser appears to be $34,000, according to campaign finance records.
The Texas receiver for the victims of Stanford’s alleged Ponzi scheme is seeking to claw back the $6,600 donated by Stanford and the company’s PAC, along with money Stanford gave to other pols, including Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel.
“Representative Meeks has not returned any of the money requested. The receiver asked Representative Meeks to join the dozens of other politicians and political committees who have returned their Stanford-related contributions,” said Kevin Sadler, the attorney for the receiver.
Sadler said he is in talks with Rangel’s lawyer to return the money, which included $8,300 to the Rangel campaign and $2,500 to his National Leadership PAC. Both Meeks and Rangel have said in the past that they gave the donations to charity.
In 2006, Stanford called in a chit for his generosity, asking Meeks to use his influence with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The billionaire wanted Meeks to tell Chavez to begin a criminal investigation into a whistleblower at Stanford’s Venezuelan bank.
Meeks allegedly was heard on a speakerphone telling Stanford he would intervene with Chavez, according to the Miami Herald.
Meeks was soon in Venezuela visiting Chavez, ostensibly to thank him for providing cheap home heating oil to Americans. A year later, the whistleblower was arrested.
While Meeks was meeting with Chavez, there were already grave concerns among US government officials about Stanford’s reputation. The US ambassador to Barbados attended a “Legends of Cricket” breakfast along with Stanford in Bridgetown and tried to avoid being photographed in public with him.
“His companies are rumored to engage in bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation,” read a May 2006 diplomatic cable about the breakfast meeting, released last month by WikiLeaks.
When Stanford was knighted in Antigua in 2006, the title was so controversial that the country’s prime minister called the honor “most unfortunate.”
Stanford was indicted in June 2009 on charges of perpetrating a $7 billion fraud by selling certificates of deposit that promised inflated rates of return. He is currently being held at a medical center in the feds’ Butner, NC, prison, the same lockup holding Ponzi king Bernie Madoff. Stanford was declared incompetent to stand trial in January because of an addiction to prescription medication, but he is expected to be re-evaluated.
Meeks refused to answer any questions about his relationship with Stanford, or why he agreed to introduce Ahmad to the billionaire.
Both men have an interest in cricket. Stanford owned a cricket team and stadium, and Ahmad sponsored his own cricket competition in New York.
Meeks and Ahmad are longtime friends. The congressman held after-hours meetings with the real-estate broker at his Queens district office, and Ahmad boasted that he had his own personal political representation.
Meeks claims the $40,000 he pocketed from Ahmad was a loan, but a House ethics panel said it appeared to be a gift. Meeks paid back the money in 2010, but only after federal investigators questioned Ahmad about it.
Like Stanford, Ahmad’s businesses were long dogged by allegations of scandal, including predatory lending and forged documentation. State authorities launched five probes into his real-estate operations between 2006 and 2008.
Ahmad, who is currently out on $2.5 million bail and prohibited from traveling to his native Guyana, faces up to 30 years in prison. The government has said that additional charges or more defendants are likely in his case.
Kings of Queens
Allen Stanford
Texas billionaire in jail awaiting trial on charges he ran an $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Accused of selling certificates of deposit promising improbably high interest rates. Big-time political donor, whose nonprofit Inter-American Economic Council hosted Caribbean junkets for members of Congress, including Meeks. Held a 2008 St. Croix fund-raiser for Meeks.
Congressman Gregory Meeks
An eight-term Democratic congressman representing Queens, Meeks is the subject of a House ethics probe for accepting a $40,000 payment from Queens businessman Edul Ahmad in 2007. Also under federal investigation for his role in a Queens charity. Arranged for Ahmad to meet banker Allen Stanford, for whom Meeks did favors, including personally lobbying Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Edul Ahmad
Queens real-estate broker and catering hall owner indicted on charges of mortgage fraud. Accused of falsifying $50 million in loan applications. Currently out on $2.5 million bail. Denied permission by the feds to travel to his native Guyana. Longtime friend of Meeks. Sought introduction Stanford through Meeks.