It's becoming clear that the juiciest aspects of the Stanford Fraud have to do with his political connections. We know he was a friend of George W. Bush, that he donated a lot to Congressmen, and that he practically bought off big-time Democrats to kill an anti-money laundering bill. Now we learn that the SEC's initial investigation into Stanford was waived off in 2006.
So which federal agency killed the investigation into Stanford?
We're learning a lot of dirty things about Stanford:
For starters, Federal authorities tell ABC News that the FBI and others have been investigating whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.
And Stanford was accused in Venezuela of being part of a CIA plot to conduct espionate against Hugo Chavez's government:
Officials from Venezuelan military intelligence raided a branch of his offshore bank over claims that its employees were paid by the CIA to spy on the south American country.
The Houston Chronicle has one of the better stories on this mess:
Authorities for years have investigated R. Allen Stanford, looking for ties to organized drug cartels and money laundering, going back at least a decade when the Texas billionaire’s offshore bank surrendered $3 million in drug money, state and federal sources told the Houston Chronicle Friday.
(snip)...
In the late 1990s, according to court documents, operatives of the Juarez cartel began opening accounts at Stanford’s Antigua-based bank in an effort to launder money amassed under one of Mexico’s most vicious drug lords, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Together, they used Stanford International Bank to open 10 accounts and deposit $3 million — a small sliver of the cartel’s fortunes but enough to pique authorities’ interest.
But the big question here, again, is why was nothing done by the Feds, after a case had been made and literally handed off to them?
"Why it took 10 years for the feds to move on it, I cannot answer," Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford told the Senate Finance Committee in Austin. Later, she added, "We worked with the FBI and the SEC and basically gave them the case. We told them what we’d seen and they were going to run with it."
And why, when this man had been under investigation for 15 years, was nothing done until whistleblowers (god, them again) forced the issue into the open?
Now Dennis Kucinich has opened an inquiry into this, asking Who Told SEC to "Stand Down" on Stanford Probe?
Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to Ms. Mary Schapiro, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting documents that could reveal which government agency told the SEC to "stand down" rather than take enforcement action against the Stanford Group in October 2006 as has been reported by the New York Times.
Recent media reports have indicated that the SEC was aware of improprieties at Stanford Financial Group as early as October 2006, but withheld action at the request of another government agency.
Why do I have this feeling that the truth will be hidden behind some sort of "national security" bullshit smokescreen?
Some are wondering if Stanford wasn't a CIA asset. After all, the CIA has a long history of drug running and money laundering, even using their own planes to transport drugs.
And keep in mind this little mostly-unknown doozy: The country's intelligence "Czar" can now waive SEC rules for businesses, if it deems such a waiver is in the interest of "national security:"
Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
Now, the White House's top spymaster can cite national security to exempt businesses from reporting requirements
President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye.
Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office. It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received a waiver under this provision.
I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the current financial meltdown.
Let's hope Kucinich gets some answers.