So, Stanford worked with DEA [View All]

Authorities accused of turning a blind eye to financier's banking business

By Cahal Milmo

Monday, 11 May 200

Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who ploughed millions of pounds into English cricket, may have been working as an informant for American anti-drug agents in return for official protection which gave him free rein to run his banking empire, it emerged yesterday.

An investigation into the financier has found that just $500m (£331m) of the claimed $7.2bn of deposits held by his Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua, has been traced by a UK-based receiver who was called in by authorities when fraud allegations were laid against Stanford in February.

The resulting $6.7bn hole in the bank's balance sheet, which leaves 28,000 depositors – including 200 Britons – with near-worthless investment certificates, raises serious concerns about the extent to which officials in America and Britain were aware of Stanford's personal finance issues and the activities of his banks long before the current economic crisis. A BBC Panorama programme, to be screened tonight, alleges that the 6ft 4in-tall businessman may have been allowed to run his banking business unfettered for up to a decade because he was passing information on to America's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about the money-laundering activities of drug baron clients from Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stanford-was-informant-for-us-antidrug-agents-1682649.html