The SEC Is a Joke, Honest

The latest news from the land of Ponzi schemes is that the SEC has been investigating Stanford International Bank for three years. During this three years period investors have been pouring money into SIB, which is apparently a Ponzi scheme.

Caracas Gringo reports:

“It took me less than 30 minutes to confirm that Stanford International Bank is a scam,” financial adviser Alex Dalmady tells Caracas Gringo. “All the data I needed was posted in plain view on Stanford’s web site,” he adds.

“I have only one question for Stanford’s owner,” Dalmady says. “Where is Stanford’s $8 billion portfolio? Where are the $8 billion hidden? Nowhere; they don’t exist.”...

Stanford International Bank “is going down very soon,” warns Dalmady.

But Dalmady is puzzled that the SEC, which has been investigating SIB and the Stanford Group since mid-2008, has not taken any action whatsoever to prevent another billionaire scam a la Bernie Madoff.

Dalmady wonders: “What is the SEC looking at? Why are they waiting?”

This is another long running scam with clues going way back. According to Business Week, in 2006, a credible former Stanford employee filed a lawsuit against SIB. The employee, Lawrence J. De Maria, a former newspaper journalist and former president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce in New York, said in his suit that the more questions he asked about the company's business practices, the more "marginalized" he became. De Maria was dismissed on Dec. 6, 2004.

SIB paid off De Maria before his case went to court.

The SEC is apparently still investigating, while SIB's web site remains live and SIB continues accepting new deposits.

According to Bloomberg:

Stanford Group Co. [the banks U.S. holding company] has 19 offices in the U.S. ...

Stanford International Bank said in a Dec. 17 letter to clients, posted on its Web site, hat it didn’t have any exposure to Madoff’s investment funds.

Stanford’s one-year, $100,000 CD paid 4.5 percent annual yield as of Nov. 28, according a posting the Web site yesterday. A one-year, $10,000 CD purchased at JPMorgan Chase & Co. would earn 1.5 percent.