Stanford’s Banks Are Running; So is Stanford

There appears to be no end to the story that developed over this past weekend about R. Allen Stanford’s successful attempt to bilk his clientele for $8 billion.

There were two developments today, one reported at the Manchester Guardian, and one at the London Telegraph.

The Brits are all over this story. I think they take it a little personally when someone messes with one of their former possessions. Antigua and Baruba were once part of the British West Indies.

And R. Allen Stanford calls himself Sir Allen, or maybe Sir R. because he was knighted by the islands’ Prime Minister a couple of years ago.

The Guardian is covering the story of the run on Stanford’s Antigua bank. It seems that hundreds of Antiguans are worried about the solvency of Stanford’s bank, and lined up around the corner to withdraw their money.

“The fall-out threatens catastrophic and immediate consequences ... There is no need for panic," Baldwin Spencer, the prime minister said on television. “

“Spencer said his government was working on a contingency plan to tackle the crisis with the six-nation Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and Antigua's central bank.

“The island was in shock. "Run on Stanford's bank", ran the front-page headline in yesterday's Daily Observer. ‘I have my savings in there in fixed deposits and I want it. I need to get my money,’ said a women who identified herself as Harriet. ‘I'm stunned. I've been hearing rumours about him all the time, but I didn't want to believe them,’ said Genevieve Gore, a 55-year-old manager of N&J's Fashion and Variety Store, in St John's, the capital city.”

And the fact is, this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Governments around the world are finding Stanford’s banks in their backyards, and have launched investigations of their own.

All of this prompting R. Allen, or Sir R., to try and take it on the lam. Now he’s no dummy and knows with all of those agencies with all of their letters investigating him, they were bound to have the airports covered should he decide to take a permanent vacation to, say, Antigua. So the Telegraph is reporting that Sir R. tried to charter a private jet to Antigua, and was darned near successful at it until the charter service, no dummies themselves, decided that they didn’t want to take Stanford’s credit card.

They wanted the funds wired to them.

And unfortunately for Sir R., this is not an easy thing to do when your assets have been frozen by the SEC.

At present, the Telegraph reports, Stanford’s whereabouts are unknown.

My guess is that he is lurking around the marinas in the Clear Lake to Galveston area trying to talk yacht owners there into giving him a lift to, say, Antigua.