Is Allen Stanford An Asset Of The CIA?

[Joe Hillshoist]

How many people are in jail in the US cos of drug use?

[Joe Hillshoist]

BTW That facility in NC looks like a nice place for a holiday.

[MinM]

Allen Stanford found guilty in Ponzi scheme case
HOUSTON | Tue Mar 6, 2012 1:03pm EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Allen Stanford was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud charges by a federal jury on Tuesday for leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from his offshore bank in Antigua.

A jury of eight men and four women found Stanford, whose net worth was once estimated at more than $2 billion, guilty on 13 counts of a 14-count criminal indictment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/ ... 6X20120306
(Reuters) - A federal jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Texas financier Allen Stanford, who has been accused of running a more than $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston said the verdict will be read at 11:45 a.m. CST (1745 GMT) on Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused Stanford of bilking investors with fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua.

http://news.yahoo.com/allen-stanford-ju ... 52069.html

[brainpanhandler]

Hopsicker connecting some dots:

http://www.madcowprod.com/

[Grizzly]

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear." - Marcus Tullius Cicero, 42 BC

Wow!

The rabbit hole of American Enantiodromia.

Amazing cover up and corruption, of decades! Decades! Same crooks and plots of yesteryear. Of which I imagine is barely scratching the surface of the reality of it all. It's so brazen I read it with delight and enthusiasm as if it's a crime novel so far away and make believe that it's not real and could only be made up. And he can't stand trial because of a drug addiction?

Really???...lmao

And one has to wonder of the degree of separations on the recent titles of the latest discussed posts, Is Allen Stanford An Asset Of The CIA?, 'Insider Trading 9/11...Unresolved, by Lars Schall 3/21/12', In Defense of Money Laundering by Law Enforcement, Executives from Chevron, Transocean Held in Brazil, Leaked documents show 9,000 Nazi war criminals fled to SA and others I'm leaving out.

If Barthes can forgive me, “What the public wants is the image of passion Justice, not passion Justice itself.”

[Nordic]

I love that quote.

I wish people would realize that the enemies of this country are all domestic.

But I guess that's what all the "hey look over there at those FOREIGNERS!" bullshit is all about.

[dqueue]

If he was an asset, he must have really crossed someone. Today, he received a 110-year sentence. It was less than half of the 230-year sentence requested by the prosecutor. No links provided, but you should be able to find it all over the web.

R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier convicted of fleecing 30,000 investors from 113 countries in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced on Thursday to 110 years in jail.

A federal jury in March convicted Mr. Stanford of 13 out of 14 counts of fraud in connection with a worldwide scheme over more than two decades in which he offered fraudulent high-interest certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank, which was based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Stanford had consistently lied to investors, promoting safe investments for money that he channeled into a luxurious lifestyle, a Swiss bank account and various business deals that almost never succeeded.

Mr. Stanford’s defense lawyers pleaded for a sentence of “time served” because of the three years he spent in prison waiting for his trial. Prosecutors recommended 230 years, the maximum according to sentencing guidelines for his crimes of conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, obstruction and money laundering. He was acquitted of one count of wire fraud.

The prosecutors heavily relied on James M. Davis, Mr. Stanford’s former roommate from Baylor University, who served as his chief financial officer. Mr. Davis testified that the Stanford business empire was a fraud, complete with bribes paid to Antiguan regulators and schemes to hide operations from federal investigators. He described how Mr. Stanford had sent him to London to send a fax to a prospective client from a bogus insurance company office to reassure him that his investment would be safe.

For Mr. Stanford, the verdict and sentencing represented the end of a remarkable career that began with a Texas fitness club venture. After it went bankrupt, he tried offshore banking and lived a life of glamour. Mr. Stanford is now a shadow of the swaggering financier who only three years ago had an estimated fortune of over $2 billion, a knighthood awarded by Antigua and a collection of yachts and a fleet of jets. He even owned his own professional cricket team and stadium on Antigua, which according to prosecutors he treated like his personal business haven in the West Indies, with politicians in tow, through bribes and political campaign contributions.

The defense denied those charges, basing its case on the fact that Mr. Stanford’s clients had been paid on schedule until the Securities and Exchange Commission made the first accusations three years ago, destroying the value of his businesses. His lawyers repeatedly pointed out that his investment literature said a loss of principal was possible and that Mr. Stanford’s assets still had value when his businesses were shut down by the federal government. They argued that Mr. Davis had often acted without Mr. Stanford’s knowledge.

In his testimony, Mr. Davis portrayed his former boss as a bullying manager who manipulated him to lie and cheat investors. He described how Mr. Stanford had invited him to drive with him in his new Mercedes-Benz on a highway outside Houston and floored the accelerator until the car reached 170 miles an hour. “He instilled intimidation and fear,” Mr. Davis said.

It took three years to bring Mr. Stanford to trial because he was severely beaten in a 2010 brawl with another federal inmate in a prison outside Houston and then became addicted to prescription antistress drugs. He underwent a year of therapy before United States District Court Judge David Hittner ruled that he was fit to stand trial. The defense said he could not properly defend himself because he had lost much of his memory.

[Simulist]

I don't know if Mr. Stanford was a CIA asset or not, and I don't think it would be possible to tell for sure either way. But a point needs to be made here.

If he was an asset, he must have really crossed someone. Today, he received a 110-year sentence. It was less than half of the 230-year sentence requested by the prosecutor. No links provided, but you should be able to find it all over the web.

On the surface at least, a hefty prison term might appear to suggest that someone wasn't a CIA asset, but I don't think it does — not in this "Truman Show" of a nation, where perception is more important to citizens than reality (or even the quest for it).

Allen Stanford got sentenced to 110 years. And Ken Lay died. And Barbara Olson was on Flight 77. And Raymond Lee Harvey and Osvaldo Espinoza Ortiz existed (as more than just a fleeting news story and a deadly-serious point that was being made to Jimmy Carter). And Timothy McVeigh was executed, despite the fact that a reporter reportedly saw him still breathing after he was pronounced dead.

So maybe all of that is true.

But I'm not entirely sure about much of anything placed into public perception. And I don't think anyone really should be.

[dqueue]

Here's an ironic twist, perhaps. Via CNBC, I read, "Stanford plans to appeal. Since all that is left of his fortune is frozen, (Judge) Hittner agreed to appoint attorneys to handle the appeal, which will be funded by the taxpayers."

I don't know if Mr. Stanford was a CIA asset or not, and I don't think it would be possible to tell for sure either way. But a point needs to be made here.

On the surface at least, a hefty prison term might appear to suggest that someone wasn't a CIA asset, but I don't think it does — not in this "Truman Show" of a nation, where perception is more important to citizens than reality (or even the quest for it).

Allen Stanford got sentenced to 110 years. And Ken Lay died. And Barbara Olson was on Flight 77. And Raymond Lee Harvey and Osvaldo Espinoza Ortiz existed (as more than just a fleeting news story and a deadly-serious point that was being made to Jimmy Carter). And Timothy McVeigh was executed, despite the fact that a reporter reportedly saw him still breathing after he was pronounced dead.

So maybe all of that is true.

But I'm not entirely sure about much of anything placed into public perception. And I don't think anyone really should be.

It's an interesting contrast to other sentencing events. Here, Stanford receives 110-years; yet, the president does not leap to his defense, to commute his sentence, a la Scooter Libby. Arguably, Stanford has, or previously had, tentacles reaching deep into Government. I agree, his sentence does nothing to confirm nor dispel any intelligence ties. It does represent a certain fall from grace -- events seem to indicate he went from covered-up-for and well-connected, to under-the-bus.

[nashvillebrook]

Excellent Hopsicker posting..on another note...

...not that this is being suggested at all, but if Stanford had a falling out with his inside advocates (CIA or otherwise) it might not be b/c he tried to burn them out of any kind of ethical/moral rethinking. Again, no one is suggesting this...I think I went there for a second in my own mind, and then realized that a much more likely scenario is that Stanford was told to cool it, and instead of doing that he proceeded in a manner that put his advocates/partners/sponsors at risk.

In other words, I'm putting my speculative bet on Megalomanical Clusterfuck.