Florida banking agency helped Stanford set up unregulated office to sell his phony CDs

La Narco Sistema: My friend Lucy Komisar has just published a great scoop in The Miami Herald that reports on the role played by the State of Florida in enabling the Ponzi scheme of Allen Stanford and the now-defunct Stanford Group.

Lucy reports: “Florida regulators — over objections by the state’s top banking lawyer — gave sweeping powers to banker Allen Stanford, accused of swindling investors of $7 billion.”

Her story just illustrates how members of the American political class have become complicit in the criminality that is sucking the blood from our society.  The fact that the State of Florida is involved here is no surprise.  Anyone familiar with the banking market in the Caribbean knows that Miami is now the nexus for drug money and offshore banking in the entire region.  State officials in FL are rented hourly by the narcos from Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia, and with the full knowledge of Washington.

Remember, Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez are good buddies.  Chavez has allowed the narco traficantes and global terrorists to turn Venezuela into a playground, but President Obama considers Chavez a friend.   Indeed, look how Obama is supporting the ousted president of Honduras, a chavista who is trying to turn his country into another haven for drug traffickers and terrorists a la Cuba and Venezuela.

Lucy writes: “The new company was also allowed to sell hundreds of millions in bank notes without allowing regulators to check for fraud.  Over the next decade, the Miami office was among Stanford’s busiest in the sale of controversial investments now at the heart of the federal government’s sweeping fraud case against Stanford and his lieutenants. ”There was no lawful way that office should have been opened,” said Richard Donelan, the state’s chief banking counsel who opposed the deal.

Here’s a comment on the story from the Herald web site: “In 1995, the Division of Banking came under the direct authority of the State Comptroller. General Milligan, a Republican, had been elected as the Comptroller the previous fall and he selected and appointed Simon, a Democrat. Back in that time the Governor had no control whatsoever over the Division of Banking. It wasn’t until 2003 that OFR was formed and then the governor had a say in the appointment of the commissioner.”

Below is the link for the story:

Best,

Chris

Source:
Florida aided Allen Stanford, suspect in huge swindle
LUCY KOMISAR, MICHAEL SALLAH AND ROB BARRY
Miami Herald, July 5, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/v-fullstory/story/1127748.html

http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/07/exclusive-florida-banking-agency-helped-stanford-set-up-unregulated-office-to-sell-his-phony-cds/