Texas financier R. Allen Stanford disappears

The Texas financier accused of cheating thousands of customers out of $8B is currently missing, federal authorities said.

Federal authorities raided all three of his headquarters but could not find 58-year-old Allen Stanford.CNBC reported that Stanford unsuccessfully tried to hire a private jet from Houston to Antigua. The jet company would not accept his credit card.On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Stanford and three of his companies. The SEC claims that roughly $8 billion of so-called certificates of deposit were sold to investors with promises of "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates," the Associated Press reported.In Antigua and Caracas, lines of people gathered outside of banks affiliated with Stanford, according to Reuters.
Panicky depositors rushed to pull money from banks on Wednesday as leaders in the Caribbean and Latin America urged calm, concerned that their slumping economies could be harmed by the fraud case against Texas financier R. Allen Stanford.
Hundreds of people lined up outside two branches of the Bank of Antigua, a Stanford-owned institution that has been flooded with fearful customers since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint Tuesday accusing him of an $8 billion fraud."People have to come to get their money," said Rasta Kente, an electrician who joined a line that stretched around the corner at a downtown bank branch. Three security officers allowed only a few people to enter at a time.Many of those waiting clutched portable radios to listen to financial news.
Local regulators said the bank's finances are sound and appealed for calm. The bank, owned by the Stanford Financial Group, one of Stanford's Houston-based financial advisory firms, was flooded by depositors even though it is not part of the U.S. complaint."If individuals persist in rushing to the bank in a panic they will precipitate the very situation that we are all trying to avoid," said K. Dwight Venner, governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the banking regulator for Antigua and seven other islands.U.S. regulators on Tuesday charged Stanford, a Texas billionaire who has become one of the most successful businessmen in the Caribbean, and three of his companies of perpetrating a "massive" $8 billion fraud that centered around high-interest-rate certificate of deposits.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission froze the assets of Houston-based Stanford Group Company, Houston's Stanford Capital Management, and Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. The latter also has offices in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.The charges have "profoundly serious implications" for Antigua, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said late Tuesday. The regional central bank said it will do "what it takes" to preserve the soundness of the banking system in the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.Colombian authorities, meanwhile, suspended the activities of Stanford International Bank's local brokerage Wednesday morning to protect "clients and investors," according to a statement from the Colombian Superintendency of Finance.The brokerage posted the equivalent of $3.5 million in losses last year, more than any of the 39 brokerages licensed to trade on Colombia's exchange, and ended 2008 with 21,493 billion pesos, or $8.6 million, in capital, the Superintendency said. Stanford does not operate a retail bank in Colombia.

Regulators in Panama took over branches of Stanford's unit there following a run on deposits Tuesday. The Superintendent of Banks said it was responding to "an isolated event as a consequence of decisions adopted by foreign authorities," and said that it did not reflect "a deterioration in the financial situation of the bank in Panama."

Assets at the bank's four Panama branches, which La Prensa said held $200.8 million in deposits at the end of 2008, are held largely in liquid, fixed-income investments that can easily be converted into cash to cover deposits if necessary, Martinez Stagg said.In Venezuela, where Stanford Bank has 14 local branches and about 15,000 clients, the nation's top bank regulator also urged calm.Banking Superintendent Edgar Hernandez warned that in addition to local depositors, a group of Venezuelans has an additional $2.5 billion in assets in Stanford's Bank in Antigua — fueling reports that some wealthy investors were traveling to Antigua Wednesday to talk to bank officials.In the Virgin Islands, Gov. John deJongh said he is worried the probe will worsen the U.S. territory's flagging economy, potentially costing jobs and investment in local projects.Stanford had pledged to build an office complex on land adjacent to St. Croix's airport.

Stanford, 58, owns a home in St. Croix and operates his businesses from Houston and Antigua. He was knighted in this Caribbean island in 2006 and helped sponsor high-stakes cricket matches

.Forbes magazine has estimated his personal fortune at $2.2 billion.In Mexico, the president of Stanford Fondos, a local mutual fund distributor run by Stanford Financial Group, said its operations have been unaffected by the SEC investigation because that group was not named in the fraud case.

Stanford Fondos managed $49.9 million, in investments for 3,414 clients as of November, according to Mexico's National Banking and Exchange Commission.

In addition to Stanford himself, the civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Dallas names as defendants James Davis, the chief financial officer of Stanford International Bank, as well as Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group.While not named in the SEC's civil complaint, regulators said Stanford was aided in running the Antigua-based operation by his father, who lives in Mexia, Texas, and another Mexia resident with a background in cattle ranching and car sales. Davis, who was named in the lawsuit, was Stanford's college roommate.