FULL STORY: The Billionaire and the Bank

My father was approached by a Stanford Group Representative here in Baton Rouge, LA when he was preparing to retire from the ExxonMobil Corporation after 35 years of employment. These guys were swimming around like sharks smelling blood looking for long-term employees with the big oil companies here on the Gulf Coast. Dad told me if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is and turned these guys down. Two of his coworkers took the bait and lost their entire life savings. Good job dad! You've taught me a lot about investing.

At this point, I'm convinced that the entire stock market and investments are just one huge ponzi machine.

Do not ever give your money to anyone who is able to speak and smile at the same time!!!

Anyone else find watching these 'older U.S.' programmes a strangely refreshing break from today's generic offerings?

Never trust anyone with your children, wife or money

His mustache was a dead giveaway to fraud.

“BS WILL GET YOU TO THE TOP ...but it won’t keep you there.” - A Rich Thief

The moral of the story is if you are full of BS it will get you to the top but never never keep you there! Very well said!🤣🤣🤣

Financial advisors at a bank are not advisors, they're sales man. If you have no knowledge of investing, they will clean you up. They'll take advantage of you.

Like they asked him if it's fun being a billionaire, now they should ask him "is it fun being in prison?".

I worked at this company from 2004-2007. I was not a broker. I was an Executive Assistant at the Miami office of Stanford Group Company. The Bank in Antigua was under Stanford Financial Group who was the branch under which the Antigua Bank operated. I worked at SGC and I was the Executive Assistant of the President who was married to I believe a niece of Allen Stanford or the CFO Jim Davis. I met Allen Stanford at work and we both went to the same gym in Miami by coincidence, the gym was conveniently located in the same building where the SFG group was and SGC was close by. The gym had a 70’s feel. Stanford liked the gym for obvious reasons. It reminded him of the time he was a gym owner in Texas and bcse it was right on top of his office. I went there bcse it was convenient. I ran into him at the gym and he knew me by first name. All the employees were terrified of him but he was familiar with me and when he came to his office in Miami he always said hi to me. Everyone was surprised he called me by first name and I always said we went to the same gym. I even joked with him a few times. Sometimes it was better he didnt know our name. He could get you fired just because he did not like your outfit. He had a receptionist fired on the spot for wearing a revealing outfit. He was very strict about the dress code. We had to wear suits and there was never a casual Friday. He was very tall and charismatic guy who inspired fear. I have a degree in Journalism and I always suspected something shady went on. I used to prepare financial reports for the Investment division. All were companies of little substance and I could not quite understand how they were profitable. I did not know much I was very young. I remember every time I tried to dig into information about him I got nowhere. I did find an article about some of his people being on the commission for banking regulations in Antigua and I knew this was not ok. I mentioned this to some co workers. There was a culture of a boys club. Obscene conversations were had in public and some of the female staff complaint about them. I had to report these behavior to HR and some execs got reprimanded. I had 3 bosses and two of them were real pos. They talked behind Vo workers, had nicknames for each other, spoke obscene things about female co workers and were abusive bosses. They had private mail in the office that was used to pass around porn dvds. I heard some pretty shocking stories while I worked there. I had a co worker that work for an older guy that was a long time employee of Stanford, an Italian old guy, she bragged how the company spare no expense to wow the the clients with trips to Antigua in private jet, expensive gifts and trips to strip clubs. No expense spare to gain clients trust. The min for CD investing was 50K and I almost had my Mom convinced to put some money there since It all looked legit. Luckily she did not. The auditor of the bank was a very old man in Antigua and that always was very suspicious to me that the Auditors were not one of the Big 4’s but an unknown audit firm in Antigua and I thought bcse the bank was in Antigua maybe that was the reason. I do believe most employees were not aware of these shenanigans. We were about 2500 between Miami, Houston, Baton Rouge, Denver, London, Venezuela, Bogota and other smaller offices and every day business was legit in some areas. We had interns from prestigious universities and bankers that came from prestigious institutions that had no idea what the SFG was up to. They raised money and made deals with known banks and those transactions were legit. The crimes and ponzi schemes were on the cds and the Antigua bank. I think some of the other business that were legit helped support the Ponzi scheme. I also believe some people were fired when they started noticing irregularities and asking too many questions. The Chief Investment Officer was a very young woman Laura Pendergast that had no credibility and a lot of employees always questioned her credentials. This was corridor talk. I believe she was the CFO mistress, this was known later after the scandal broke out. She ended up in jail. I left the company about a year before the whole thing blew up. It feels like ancient history now. I once was on a plane and happened to sit down to a guy that was from Antigua. We started talking and He said that Stanford owned the Island and he despised him bcse he ran it like his personal mafia clan. He said Stanford controlled everything in the Island. If you were. It with him you were his enemy. This guy lost his business because Stanford wanted to control also the food that came into the island and he could not compete with him. It is unfortunate that so many people lost their life savings but Honestly Stanford and his closest circle were impenetrable. We were all convinced everything was legit. I always thought Stanford was shady bcse he had many wives. His assistants (5 of them) were paid very well to keep quiet. There was an older lady that by that time was in her 70’s that probably handled his most intimate matters and she was a very very secretive person. There was these other guy who ran personal errands for Stanford but they never talked. I ended up working there after I interviewed to be his assistant but I did not get the job because of my accent since I am Hispanic they did not like that. I never interviewed with him. I knew this later of course. So racist. However they called me a few days later to offer me another job on the other company and I took it bcse they paid decent salary and it was a prestigious company in Miami. I never handled clients files or money. When I heard about the raids I lived in San Francisco but still had girlfriends working there. They were as surprised as everyone. I am embarrassed to put this in my resume and I feel terrible for the damage he and his accomplices caused. Stanford claimed he was relative of the founder of Stanford University and he was relative of the former Ca governor Leelamd Stanford but he was not and he had pictures in the offices of his great grandfather who used to have an insurance business. He made it look like he came from a prestigious family with old and honest hard earned money. He had all of us fooled. He was a master manipulator. I do know the helicopter with the Stanford name was rented. He had the yachts and the homes and several ex wives and children that lived very well. He even owned a castle. Certainly he could have not done it alone. I even think some people in the SEC and other financial institutions runrunes a blind eye or ignored anything suspicious they saw. He got too big and a lot of people benefited from his activities.

110 Years . I rather have average money and continue to enjoy my living hell of paycheck to paycheck 😂

What's that saying? The safest way to double your money is to fold it in two and place it in your pocket? Lol :D

i was hired into their marketing department - to this day, I have no idea how they found me all the way in NYC. They moved me, gave me a real office and within a month I started to ask questions. The more questions I asked, the more pushback I got. I am grateful to my dad who taught me to be weary of scammers and how they move. . The numbers simply DID NOT ADD UP. take note they were never allowed to enter London, Swiss or EU financial markets nor any real prominence in NYC aside from a "trading desk". They targeted hard working small American townspeople and it was very obvious. they operated all over South America and the Middle East: selling "an American" bank. There was NEVER a bank. There were very fancy offices in Antigua. That is all. By month 6 I knew this was all BS, and I quit. But get his: they chased me for a few weeks, because I had taken "marketing materials". I contacted MSNBC and was ignored completely even after speaking with at least 2 reporters. this was in 2005. Not kidding. Stanford knew that no one would believe an of this: and that is how he got away with it so long. The government in Texas was complicit. Look at who his friends were at the time. Plenty of private jet flights to antigua that many were aware of. side note: i moved countries for 8 years.

I remember being in Antigua...when he kept 20/20 cricket in the year 2006...i remember when they came for him. He had done great for Antiguans...they all missed him. His building is still there and one in St. Kitts. Until now Antiguans talks about him. He had built his own cricket ground in Antigua. He had funded the Stanford 20/20 cricket tournament in the west indies. He use to fly in his private helicopter to Antigua...i was surprised when he was arrested.

I like to watch Allan Stanfords Story over and over again. How arrogant he was. I even like what he said " If you are full of BS, it will get you to the top, but will never never keep you there". Nice one Allan!😂😂😂

This guy single handily made 2020 cricket popular

You NEVER put all of your eggs in ONE basket. Never.

I was born and raise in the island of Antigua, I remember as a kid when Stanford was around life was good . he provides a lot of jobs and help the people alot ,,,my mom used to work for him and she use to can provide anything I ask for .. Antigua miss Stanford but we had no idea he was thief at all

if it sounds too good to be true - its probably IS too good to be true!!!