Stanford Financial was had 50 offices around the world with its headquarters in Houston. TX. Stanford financial was founded by Allen Stanford. Stanford had several local health clubs in the Houston area that were not successful leading to him to file for protection under bankruptcy. Mr. Stanford then move to the island of Montserrat, which is a British Territory off the coast of Antigua. Montserrat was known for its banking centers, at one point there has a bank on the island for every 30,000 people. The island was very lax on licensing and even more so on its regulations.
Stanford bought a small store front in downtown Montserrat and named it Stanford International Bank. He hung a picture of his late Grandfather and named him the founder in 1936, it was all a lie. Within a year Stanford had accumulated 8.5billion in assets from its clients, mostly made of wealthy Latin Americans. He would promise higher returns on clients Certificates of Deposits (CD) claiming he didn’t have all the red tape and fees that other financial institutions had. Stanford eventually expanded in the US Virgin Island and into Houston, TX.
Stanford used people money in the form of CD’s to build his own wealth, and sometimes showing small dividends by paying investors with other investors money. This was a typical Ponzi scheme. There were several accusation along the way, but they all seemed to be ignored.
Leyla Wydler, who had worked for Stanford, alerted the authorities back in 2003 was the