WASHINGTON — On paper, it looked like R. Allen Stanford was making all the right moves.
Subprime mortgages? His companies never got involved. Risky loans? He said he never made one.
“There has never been, and there will never be, an easy way to make money,” Stanford wrote last year. “It requires discipline, knowledge, experience, hard work and plain common sense.”
But U.S. investigators say Stanford’s companies weren’t based on any of that. Instead, they say, the Texas billionaire’s offshore bank and financial companies used rosy financial predictions and old-fashioned deceit to lure investors into a scam.
The Securities and Exchange Commission shut down three of Stanford’s companies this week. FBI agents in Houston are running a parallel investigation, according to a U.S. official.
Stanford Group maintained an office in Denver for more than a decade with an undisclosed number of local clients.
Stanford launched a $3.5 million marketing campaign last year to promote the sport of cricket in Fort Collins, and he hosted a forum and party at the Democratic National Convention in August. A video on the company website showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hugging Stanford and ex-President Bill Clinton thanking him for supporting the event, according to ABC News. Stanford has not been charged with any crime.
Denver Post staff writer Aldo Svaldi contributed to this report.
