Antigua St. John's - Ralph Janvey, the court appointed received for Stanford assets in the United States, has launched a query against a former Stanford attorney and two law firms suing them over claims they aided the $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
And the Stanford Victims Group has used the platform to remind the courts here in Antigua to consider similar actions.
Janvey filed the application last Friday in a Dallas Federal Court, accusing Thomas Sjoblom, the lawyer, and Proskauer Rose LLP, where Sjoblom was a partner from 2006 to 2009, and Chadbourne & Parke LLP, where Sjoblom was a partner from 2002 to 2006, of aiding and abetting Stanford’s fraudulent scheme, according to a Bloomberg news report.
R. Allen Stanford was convicted to serve 110-years in prison in March 2012 of stealing more than US$2 billion from depositors at his bank based here in Antigua. And for using the funds to finance a lavish personal lifestyle that included private jets, yachts and mansions.
According to news report, the attorney in question allegedly joined a “conspiracy” in the summer of 2005 at Stanford’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, to allegedly obstruct a U.S. Securities Exchange Commission investigation into the Ponzi scheme.
“Sjoblom, who had 20 years of experience as a senior lawyer in the SEC’s Enforcement Division, spent the next four years delaying and obstructing the investigation by lying to the SEC,” Janvey said.
Caribarena sought a comment on the matter from Attorney General Justin Simon, specifically looking for insights on whether or not similar suites could be repeated against Stanford’s attorneys here in Antigua. But the AG declined to comment.
A spokesperson from the Stanford International Victims group has however announced that the victims were pleased to see that some of the people who (allegedly) sold their integrity and honesty to Allen Stanford for the sake of making a fast dollar are now in the firing line of the receiver Ralph Janvey.
“The courts in the US and Antigua need to show that no matter whoever you are or wherever you are from, no one is above the law. These people are accused of making lots of money off the backs of the victims by turning a blind eye and therefore allowing and assisting Stanford to carry out his massive Ponzi scheme. If they are guilty then they assumed the risk and as lawyers they should know more than anyone that crime does not pay,” the spokesperson said.
In the meantime, the receiver is accusing the lawyer of falsely stating that he had personally confirmed Stanford Financial wasn’t a Ponzi scheme, instructing Stanford Financial to hide documents from the SEC, misrepresenting the existence and nature of the SEC’s investigation to Stanford Group Co.’s auditors, and offering false testimony to the SEC.
For a full and open debate on the Stanford Receivership visit:
http://sivg.org.ag/
The Stanford International Victims Group Forum
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