Sir Robert Allen Stanford Roundup
The Blog is getting caught up today on the news surrounding former wealthy financier, alleged Ponzi schemer and cricket fanatic Sir Robert Allen Stanford. First, last Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Stanford allegedly lobbied the U.S. to permit Cuba to participate in an international cricket tournament. One of Stanford's companies, Stanford Financial Group, paid the Ben Barnes Group of Austin, Texas, $500,000 to lobby the U.S. Treasury Department to permit Cuba to particpate in the Stanford-20 Carribean Cricket Tournament in Antigua, citing Cuba's participation in the World Baseball Classic as precedent. In 2006, the U.S. government granted a special license for Cuba to participate in the tournament, after the Cuban government promised to donate any and all winnings from the tournament to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. However, in 2007, the U.S. reversed itself and blocked Cuba's participation.
Then on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Houston attorney Kent Schaffer, of the firm Bires & Schaffer, will represent Stanford working with the federal public defender's office for the Southern District of Texas. Stanford, once a billionaire, was left without means to pay for his defense after the government seized and froze his assets and the District Court refused access to the assets. Stanford nevertheless appears to be getting competent and skilled counsel--Mr. Schaffer's profile lists numerous high-profile clients including large corporations, a U.S. Congressman, late actress Farrah Fawcett, late MLB player Ken Caminiti, NFL player Dante Hall and other professional athletes, rap artists, authors and writers and a defendant in the Enron trial.
Finally, on Friday, Stanford Financial Group's former Global Security Director, Thomas Rafanello, pled not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to charges that he shredded documents, as reported by Bloomberg. The government's indictment alleges that Rafanello and Bruce Perraud shredded documents in response to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in violation of a court order. Rafanello is a former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office.
