US federal authorities are investigating millions of dollars contributed by fraud suspect Allen Stanford and his staff to US lawmakers in the past decade, the Miami Herald reported on Sunday.
The newspaper said the Justice Department investigation aimed to determine whether the banker received special favors from politicians while he was operating his alleged US$7 billion Ponzi scheme centered on fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua and Barbuda.
The newspaper said an e-mail sent to Stanford by Texas Republican Representative Pete Sessions on the day authorities announced fraud charges against the billionaire financier, as well as US$2.3 million in contributions he made to Sessions and other US lawmakers, were “part of the government’s inquiry.”
It said Stanford, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial set for January 2011, also spent US$5 million on lobbying since 2001. It said he successfully lobbied in 2001 to kill a bill that would have exposed the flow of millions into his secretive offshore bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua.
The following year he helped block legislation that would have led to more government scrutiny of his now disgraced Antigua bank, the <
Stanford, 59, has been in custody since June 19, when he was indicted on 21 criminal charges related to his alleged fraud. His global banking and securities business was shut down in February when the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges that he and others had committed fraud.
The Herald said that on the day federal agents raided Stanford’s offices in the US, on Feb. 17, the financier received an e-mail message from Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The newspaper said the message was found on Stanford’s computer servers and reads: “I love you and believe in you.
“If you want my ear/voice — e-mail,” the Miami Herald quoted the message as saying, adding it was signed “Pete.”
Sessions did not respond to requests for interviews and his press secretary said she had not seen the e-mail and so could not comment on it, the newspaper said.
It said Stanford also funded Caribbean trips for a group of US lawmakers known as the Caribbean Caucus, including Sessions and Democrats Gregory Meeks of New York and Donald Payne of New Jersey.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS