December 23, 2022
R. Allen Stanford exiting his private helicopter. Photo: CNBC.
On June 14th, 2012, R. Allen Stanford was sentenced by US District Judge David Wittner to 110 years in federal prison for his role in a $7 billion fraud scheme. On pronouncing the sentence, Judge Wittner said that Stanford treated his victims like “economic roadkill.” Here is the story of his rise and fall.
This is the story of a deadbeat banker. His name is Allen Stanford and he was once known as the $7 billion man. Now, he faces federal indictments that charge him with running a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked depositors out of billions.
Born in Mexia, Texas, the mysterious arc of Stanford’s career sees him rise from burger-flipping gym rat in Waco to globe-trotting banker, a lord of cricket, a friend (and travel agent) of politicians. His robust resume also includes strangely intimate histories with numerous female acquaintances (known in his circle as the “Outside Wives”), as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Blinking stridently on the radar of federal investigators at various agencies for more than 20 years, Stanford’s banking empire was finally shut down in February by the Securities Exchange Commission, which claims, in self-congratulatory language, that Stanford’s fraudulent operations put the “integrity of the of the markets” at risk. Stanford and six of his partners now face an imposing list of…
