By Terri Langford
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The day after Paul Ashe took a post as a bank regulator in Antigua, R. Allen
Stanford called him with an offer for a job that would make him "a very
happy man" for the rest of his life, Ashe testified Thursday in Stanford's
fraud trial.
Ashe, supervisor of international banks for Antigua's Financial Services
Regulatory Commission, indicated he quickly ended the conversation with
Stanford in February 2008, did not know what job Stanford was proposing and
didn't follow up.
Later that year, Ashe participated in an examination of Stanford
International Bank in the Caribbean island nation and eventually came to
doubt the accuracy of its financial reports.
He also described panic among depositors in February 2009, when a U.S.
lawsuit against the bank's parent company, Houston-based Stanford Financial
Group, froze the assets of all Stanford properties.
"It was total chaos. The customers were screaming for their money," Ashe
told the jury in U.S. District Judge David Hittner's court.
Stanford, 61, a Mexia native, is accused of running a $7 billion investment
scam, largely through certificates of deposit issued by Stanford
International Bank.
Among the allegations are that investors were told the bank passed muster
from regulators and an independent auditor, and that an auditor and
regulator received bribes in exchange for those favourable reports.
Ashe said that he served during part of the tenure of the regulator accused
of taking bribes, Leroy King, former head of the Financial Services
Regulatory Commission.
Super Bowl tickets
Ashe testified he was unaware of under-the-table cash payments or gifts of
Super Bowl tickets King is accused of taking and said that Antiguan law
prohibits regulators from accepting gifts worth more than $50.
King is charged in a separate indictment, along with three Stanford
Financial officials, all to be tried later.
Ashe also described his own efforts to examine the bank in his official
capacity.
He said that after weeks of "hardball" from the bank resisting meetings with
regulators, a team of half a dozen met with bank officials in September
2008.
"We wanted to see how Stanford International Bank was actually making its
money," Ashe said. He said he was surprised by the paucity of documents
detailing oversight by the bank's board.
He also said he was concerned by loans from the bank to Stanford, which he
wasn't sure were supported by the cash reserves required under Antiguan law.
According to testimony by previous witnesses, the bank loaned Stanford
millions of dollars for his personal use and business ventures, even though
investors in the CDs were told their deposits were invested conservatively
and not used for such lending.
Fleet and estate
Jurors also got a description Thursday of Stanford's luxurious life, as a
personal assistant described his fleet of vessels and estate in St. Croix,
U.S. Virgin Islands.
"He always liked having the best," said Kelly Taylor, who, along with her
then-husband, worked for Stanford for several years. At one point their
tasks included overseeing the $13 million renovation of the Sea Eagle, a
106-foot yacht Stanford purchased for $4 million and extended to 112 feet.
The two-year renovation in the Netherlands began in 2003, Taylor said. She
and her husband spent time there, and Stanford visited at least once to
inspect the progress.
Stanford's other vessels included a 180-foot rescue tug that Stanford bought
to support the Sea Eagle, a 55-foot "weekend boat," and a 30-foot fishing
boat, Taylor said.
Difficult boss
She described Stanford as a difficult boss, and said she and other employees
jokingly referred to their jobs as "stand by to stand by" because they
always were on call to respond to his often-changing demands.
She also detailed quirks including his insistence that dry cleaning be sent
from St. Croix to Florida or Texas, and that water be shipped in. She said
she once was tasked with finding koi of a certain size and colour to stock a pond for a cricket tournament in Antigua.
No comments:
Post a Comment