2/19/09

Guardian: FBI Finds Robert Allen Stanford in Fredericksburg Virginia - Serves Him Papers

No longer on the lam, Stanford has been found and served with papers. Not arrested? What?
'We said, are you this guy? He said yes.' FBI finds Stanford
Ed Pilkington in St John's, Antigua, The Guardian

A two-day global hunt to find the cricket tycoon Sir Allen Stanford in the wake of allegations that he masterminded a massive financial swindle came to an end last night, when the FBI said it had tracked him down to Virginia.

The discovery of the Texas billionaire in Fredericksburg, about 50 miles south-west of Washington, spared the American financial regulators further embarrassment after they issued charges against Stanford on Tuesday but without being certain of his whereabouts.

It allowed the Securities and Exchange Commission to serve papers on the businessman, thus rendering its proceedings against him active in what it claims to be a financial fraud of "shocking magnitude".

The FBI said last night the businessman had been found as he was driving a car in Fredericksburg, noting he was not a fugitive and had been very cooperative. "He wasn't hard to find," the FBI said. "We said, 'Are you this guy?', he said, 'Yes', and we served the papers on him."

The SEC alleges Stanford misled investors in a fraud whose total value reaches $9.2bn (£6.4bn). He is accused of encouraging investors using false information about the performance of his banks, including claims that he put the money into tradable shares when in fact it went towards real estate and private equity...

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