Published: Friday, 17 Jun 2011 | 2:19 PM By: Scott Cohn
Senior Correspondent, CNBC
The court-appointed receiver who is recovering assets for investors in Allen Stanford's alleged Ponzi scheme is demanding that Libya's sovereign wealth funds return millions of dollars they somehow managed to withdraw just before the firm blew up in 2009, CNBC has learned.
And all of the money is on deposit in a U.S. bank.
In a complaint still under seal in U.S. District Court in Dallas, attorney Ralph Janvey demands the return of nearly $55 million in alleged "fraudulent transfers" to the Libyans. The money includes $12 million in funds Libya managed to withdraw just after Allen Stanford made a personal trip to meet with members of the Qaddafi regime in early 2009.
Three weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Stanford and his companies, shutting down the alleged scam. A spokesman for Janvey tells CNBC all of the money is in a U.S. bank, but he could not disclose which bank because the order is still under seal.
All of the funds have been frozen by the court, pending a hearing in December.
What I would like to know is where the rest of the Libyan money went, and why Libya have not made a claim on the estate. Libya reportedly invested $500m in January 2009, yet one month later when Stanford folded their accounts stood at only $59m. So why is the receiver not disclosing who received the $441m balance? Where did it go, was it insider knowledge or was it a slush fund?
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