Convicted of Fraud: Stanford’s Fort Collins Connection
Texas Billionaire Allen Stanford has been convicted by a jury of wide-spread fraud.
Now, authorities will be attempting to retrieve millions from Stanford's fortune to repay investors in what appears to have been a $7 billion 20-year ponzi scheme.
Get the details- and get Stanford's connection to Fort Collins when you "Read More"
Stanford used his wealth and power to promote his own version of Twenty20 Cricket (Twenty20 Cricket was first played in 2003 in the West Indies). His would be held in Antigua and be called “The Stanford Twenty20”. It was his money, after all.
The first “Stanford Twenty20' Tournament happened in 2006.
For the 2008 tournament, part of Stanford’s plan was to have ONE city in the USA where the games could be viewed via satellite from Antigua (it took a month for the whole tournament to be played). Having been knighted by the Antiguan government for being the nation’s largest employer, SIR Allen Stanford chose The Choice City- Fort Collins to be the viewing host for ‘The 2008 Stanford Twenty20 Tournament”. Maybe he and his team chose Fort Collins because of its active lifestyle. Maybe because of the city’s college-town youth factor. Who knows.
It’s reported that 300 million people across the world watched that 2008 tournament. Numbers on how many people showed up to local restaurants and bars in Fort Collins for the tournaments is unknown.
However, The Coloradoan is reporting that Stanford spent $3.5 million in our area to advertise the tournament. Mostly in the form of newspapers, billboards and bus benches; but he did spend almost $40,000 in January and February of 2008 to advertise on our radio stations- K99, TRI-102.5, 99.9 The Point and 94.3 MAX-FM.
It doesn’t appear that The Stanford Twenty20 has had any other tournaments since 2008. In 2009 Allen Stanford was arrested on charges of wide-spread fraud stemming from his Stanford International Bank. Official charged Stanford with running a ponzi scheme that bilked over 30,000 investors in 100 countries.
On Tuesday March 6, a jury found Allen Stanford guilty on all but one of the 14 charges against him. If sentenced to the maximum penalty on all of those 13 charges, and if the judge chose to make Stanford serve those sentences consecutively, Stanford could be sentenced to 230 years in prison.
From The Coloradoan:
Prosecutors say Stanford used investor money to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for his lavish lifestyle, which included buying himself yachts and private jets.
Prosecutors are now hoping to seize $300 million from Stanford’s fortune to help pay back investors.
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