Stanford a cog in the U.S. intelligence dirty money laundering machine

Sir Allen Stanford appears to be yet another multi-billion dollar cog in a network of off-shore banks, corporate contrivances, and folding tent operations. Although Stanford is being investigated for a $8 billion fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Stanford has extensive holdings on the island of St. Croix, told the Associated Press that the Obama Justice Department is not actively pursuing Stanford.

The Obama campaign gave $4,600 in donations from Stanford to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless after the news broke about the investigation against Stanford;s firms.

A host of Democrats and Republicans reaped donations from Stanford, including jailed ex-Representative Bob Ney (R-OH), who was convicted in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal; former Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX); Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Senators John McCain (R-AZ), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).

In 2006, Stanford obtained a knighthood from the Antiguan government thanks to his close relationship to Antiguan Prime Minister Spencer Baldwin, where Stanford International Bank maintains its headquarters. Stanford maintains dual U.S. and Antiguan citizenship. Stanford was also close to Antigua's former Prime Minister Lester Bird, who was accused of massive corruption.

Ironically, it was while Baldwin's United Progressive Party was in opposition in 2003 that he accused two of Bird's ministers, Tourism Minister Molwyn Joseph and Planning Minister Gaston Browne, of accepting campaign donation bribes from Stanford in exchange for pubic lands in St. John's, the Antiguan capital. Learning from his experience in donating to both Democrats and Republicans in the United States, Stanford ensures that both major parties in Antigua also received his monetary largess. It should also be noted that Antigua is a primary center for Russian-Israeli Mafia money laundering activities in the Caribbean.

That may come as unwelcome news not only to Stanford but to the CIA that could see its illegal money laundering operations if Stanford is arrested and tried. Of course, that may also be problematic since the Obama Justice Department has decided to maintain a Bush policy of invoking a privilege of state secrets in criminal and civil cases involving national security matters.

Last November 1, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that Hugo Chavez's military intelligence agents raided Stanford International Bank in Caracas and investigated three Stanford Bank employees at the Venezuela branch who were believed to be U.S. intelligence agents.

Stanford International Bank was reported by EFE to have been founded 'during the Great Depression.' The bank is part of the Stanford Financial Group that was reported to have $51 billion in assets. Stanford Capital Management, Stanford Group's investment branch, managed a fund called Stanford Allocation Strategy. The investment arm is also under investigation.

On March 6, 2007, WMR reported: WMR's report about 'Sir' R. Allen Stanford and his Stanford Financial Group in Houston buying up land in Antigua and Barbuda and running roughshod over the government of that nation turned up an interesting important footnote to the story. Stanford's Houston offices are directly across Westheimer Road in the part of the Galleria complex where Carlyle Group offices are located. Coincidence? Not with the Bush criminal cartel.

The FBI is reportedly now investigating Stanford's firms for laundering money for Mexico's Gulf drug cartel. Stanford, Houston, off-shore banks, and drugs equal the perfect brew for another Bush family criminal cartel operation tied to the CIA.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4402.shtml