the stanford financial group - another ponzi scheme?

Today, Stanford, Laura Pendergest-Holt (who got married since their first meeting) and ­Davis face federal charges that they swindled investors out of $8 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme run out of Houston, Miami and the Caribbean, taking money for supposed certificates of deposit and then simply paying off old customers with the new cash. The question remains why it took regulators six more years to catch on, especially when Hazlett’s cries were far from isolated to South Florida.

The fallout in Miami, Latin America and the Caribbean has been devastating. More than 300 Stanford employees in Texas have lost jobs, thousands of investors have had accounts frozen and about 30,000 worldwide allegedly have lost a total of $8 billion in life savings to the giant house of cards. And each allegation has dealt another body blow to America’s already teetering confidence in government safeguards and the economy.

Even more than Bernie Madoff’s tale, Allen Stanford’s rise and fall is the story of the past decade in America, where greed mixed with cynical politics birthed a perfect storm for accused hucksters such as Stanford to bring the global economy to its knees. And as Stanford’s story shows, the warning signs were there. They were simply ignored.

read further: The Rise and Fall of the Stanford Financial Group - Castles and corruption lead to criminal charges.

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