Close To $7 Billion Still Missing In Stanford Bak Scandal

Stanford Receiver Seeks Clawback of Investor Funds (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Andrew M. Harris

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Ralph Janvey, the receiver for companies run by accused con man R. Allen Stanford, sued five investors seeking the return, or so-called clawback, of millions of dollars from some of the Texas financier’s investors.

Janvey filed papers this week in federal court in Dallas that seeks to recover more than $3 million in proceeds he says they received from certificates of deposit purchased from Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. Janvey didn’t accuse the investors of having done anything wrong.

“In fraud cases such as this, where investors’ funds are commingled, all defrauded persons are similarly situated with respect to those who perpetrated the scheme and are to be treated equally with respect to the ultimate distribution” of any money recovered from Stanford’s estate, Janvey’s lawyer Kevin Sadler said in the complaints, which were filed in Dallas federal court.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors accuse Stanford, several of his top executives and three of his companies of running a “massive” Ponzi scheme that offered investors “improbable if not impossible” returns by repaying early depositors with funds taken from later depositors.

Janvey’s lawsuit cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the original Ponzi case that found “equality is equity” when dealing with “equally innocent victims.”

“Allowing some innocent investors,” such as the five being sued in this clawback action, “to keep proceeds from the fraudulent scheme when other investors received none, would violate this principle,” Sadler said.

Janvey said he’s identified roughly $1 billion in cash and equivalents in Stanford bank accounts and roughly $650 million in the financier’s private-equity portfolio, which will be far short of what’s needed to repay holders of $7.2 billion in open certificates of deposit at the Antiguan bank.

Stanford has denied all wrongdoing and is fighting criminal charges that could imprison him for life, if he’s convicted. He is in jail in the Houston area awaiting trial.

The case is SEC v. Stanford International Bank, 3:09-cv- 00298-N, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas). The criminal case is U.S. v. Stanford, H-09-342, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston). The investor clawbacks case is Janvey v. Jim Letsos, 3:09-cv- 01329-P, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

To contact the reporters on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com; Andrew M. Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 17, 2009 15:29 EDT