One of the most allegedly heinous villains of the Wall Street meltdown will fight accusations that he bilked investors out of $8 billion. The federal proceedings begin today in Houston.
The treacherous Texan presumably followed in the steps of Bernie Madoff by promising investors solid returns on safe, conservative CDs offered by Antiguan banks. However, Stanford actually used the funds to purchase real estate and stock for his own portfolio.
Stanford and Madoff are both significant case in de-regulation or non-regulation. Both funds were not certified by the SEC so investors based their decisions on the integrity and investing acumen of the 2 future inmates. I think we can safely say they chose poorly.
This is also a lesson in psychology. Con artists like Stanford and Madoff are typically wise in the ways of human nature. Their targets thought they were too rich and too smart to be duped.
Very interesting Post! These two individuals had effectively swindled thousands of individuals some very high profile actors, investors, and business men in the country as well as took advantage of you and me. With all that has been done does that still give the right to the government to intercede? I mean these investors were well educated and well informed individuals. At what point does investing in a risky transaction and failing call for government regulation. Is this not what the criminal system was designed to handle and is handling based on the fact that both Madoff of Stanford have both been arested and are awaiting prosecution? There is no doubt that government must intercede in some cases based on the impact of the nation as a whole but we are talking about a small percentage of the country that have been effected by individuals like Madoff and Stanford.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lantz - Pols 2301
Actually, the swindled population is larger than you might think. Both Stanford and Madoff left innocent bystanders in their wake who relied upon a trusted advisor or institution that chose to invest with the two alleged criminals.
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