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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published February 20, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>US launches hunt for elusive Texas tycoon Stanford
Panicked investors withdraw money from the billionaire financier's banks
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</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(WASHINGTON) The US authorities were trying to track down Texas billionaire financier Allen Stanford yesterday, as fraud charges against the cricket impresario prompted panicked investors to withdraw cash from his banks.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>Cricket impresario: Stanford (right), a high-profile cricket promoter, celebrating Stanford Superstars' victory over England after a cricket-match series in St John's, Antigua last November </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Two days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Stanford, 58, of perpetrating 'a fraud of shocking magnitude', officials were still in the dark about his whereabouts - as were close members of his family.
While mystery surrounded Stanford's whereabouts, CNBC television reported that he tried to hire a private jet to fly from Houston to Antigua, but the jet lessor refused to accept his credit card.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle newspaper, Stanford's 81-year-old father James said he understood that the authorities were searching for his son, but insisted he had no idea where his son could be.
'I'd spoken to him a week or so ago - he'd called - about problems with the business climate in general, but nothing of this magnitude,' he said.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff>[FONT=Geneva, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]<!-- REPLACE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS WITH YOUR OWN VALUES --><TABLE class=quoteBox cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=144 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>
</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#fffff1><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=124 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>While mystery surrounded Stanford's whereabouts, CNBC television reported that he tried to hire a private jet to fly from Houston to Antigua, but the jet lessor refused to accept his credit card.
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'I cannot imagine, I cannot believe, I will not believe what is being alleged actually happened.
'I cannot believe that my son would run,' he added.
The SEC this week charged Stanford - a high-profile cricket promoter - of an US$8 billion fraud that follows Bernard Madoff's alleged US$50 billion Ponzi scheme, causing long queues of angry depositors in several South American countries.
Reports also emerged on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation into whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico's powerful Gulf cartel.
ABC News, citing unnamed federal officials, said Mexican police detained one of Stanford's private planes and found cheques inside believed to be linked to the ultra-violent cartel.
Asked by reporters whether there would be more fraud cases of the scale and scope of Madoff and Stanford, US Attorney-General Eric Holder told reporters: 'It's hard to say. I'd like to think that those are going to be the largest.'
He declined to comment on why the Justice Department has not filed criminal charges against Stanford. Asked if Stanford may be outside the United States, SEC spokeswoman Kimberly Garber said: 'Certainly that's a possibility, but we don't know.'
In a new development, Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it was monitoring a possible link from the scandal surrounding Stanford after media reports that his firm was audited from the United Kingdom.
Antigua-based accounting firm C.A.S. Hewlett, which the Evening Standard said had audited Stanford's books, was operating from its London offices after its founder Charlesworth 'Shelley' Hewlett died last month, the Standard and other newspapers said.
'It's a situation where there is the possibility there may be a UK link and so we are monitoring the situation,' a spokesman for the SFO said.
'It's not the case that we have launched investigators at it. We are making contact and liaising with other authorities,' the spokesman also said.
C.A.S. Hewlett has offices at a number of London addresses, but the numbers were disconnected, or rang out.
Mr Hewlett's daughter Celia had taken on responsibility of the accounting firm from London after her father died last month, the Evening Standard reported on its website on Wednesday.
'We have read that there is a possibility that some of the auditing operations were handled here in the UK, but it would be wrong to say that we have served any notices or searched any premises,' the SFO said.
The scandal is an embarrassment for the normally tranquil world of British cricket, and has made it unlikely that the Stanford-sponsored Twenty20 tournament at the spiritual home of the game, Lord's, will still happen. -- Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>US launches hunt for elusive Texas tycoon Stanford
Panicked investors withdraw money from the billionaire financier's banks
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20></TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20></TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(WASHINGTON) The US authorities were trying to track down Texas billionaire financier Allen Stanford yesterday, as fraud charges against the cricket impresario prompted panicked investors to withdraw cash from his banks.<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>Cricket impresario: Stanford (right), a high-profile cricket promoter, celebrating Stanford Superstars' victory over England after a cricket-match series in St John's, Antigua last November </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Two days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Stanford, 58, of perpetrating 'a fraud of shocking magnitude', officials were still in the dark about his whereabouts - as were close members of his family.While mystery surrounded Stanford's whereabouts, CNBC television reported that he tried to hire a private jet to fly from Houston to Antigua, but the jet lessor refused to accept his credit card.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle newspaper, Stanford's 81-year-old father James said he understood that the authorities were searching for his son, but insisted he had no idea where his son could be.
'I'd spoken to him a week or so ago - he'd called - about problems with the business climate in general, but nothing of this magnitude,' he said.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff>[FONT=Geneva, Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]<!-- REPLACE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS WITH YOUR OWN VALUES --><TABLE class=quoteBox cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=144 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>
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'I cannot believe that my son would run,' he added.
The SEC this week charged Stanford - a high-profile cricket promoter - of an US$8 billion fraud that follows Bernard Madoff's alleged US$50 billion Ponzi scheme, causing long queues of angry depositors in several South American countries.
Reports also emerged on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation into whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico's powerful Gulf cartel.
ABC News, citing unnamed federal officials, said Mexican police detained one of Stanford's private planes and found cheques inside believed to be linked to the ultra-violent cartel.
Asked by reporters whether there would be more fraud cases of the scale and scope of Madoff and Stanford, US Attorney-General Eric Holder told reporters: 'It's hard to say. I'd like to think that those are going to be the largest.'
He declined to comment on why the Justice Department has not filed criminal charges against Stanford. Asked if Stanford may be outside the United States, SEC spokeswoman Kimberly Garber said: 'Certainly that's a possibility, but we don't know.'
In a new development, Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it was monitoring a possible link from the scandal surrounding Stanford after media reports that his firm was audited from the United Kingdom.
Antigua-based accounting firm C.A.S. Hewlett, which the Evening Standard said had audited Stanford's books, was operating from its London offices after its founder Charlesworth 'Shelley' Hewlett died last month, the Standard and other newspapers said.
'It's a situation where there is the possibility there may be a UK link and so we are monitoring the situation,' a spokesman for the SFO said.
'It's not the case that we have launched investigators at it. We are making contact and liaising with other authorities,' the spokesman also said.
C.A.S. Hewlett has offices at a number of London addresses, but the numbers were disconnected, or rang out.
Mr Hewlett's daughter Celia had taken on responsibility of the accounting firm from London after her father died last month, the Evening Standard reported on its website on Wednesday.
'We have read that there is a possibility that some of the auditing operations were handled here in the UK, but it would be wrong to say that we have served any notices or searched any premises,' the SFO said.
The scandal is an embarrassment for the normally tranquil world of British cricket, and has made it unlikely that the Stanford-sponsored Twenty20 tournament at the spiritual home of the game, Lord's, will still happen. -- Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg
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