It’s been more than two years since 1,290 Texans lost their life savings in the R. Allen Stanford debacle. Many of the victims were teachers, nurses and firefighters, and these losses reflect most, if not all, of the retirement funds they accumulated over many years of hard work. Yesterday, justice finally prevailed for these victims when the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled they should be compensated for their financial losses. I want to commend SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and her colleagues on this sensible ruling, and to congratulate the Stanford victims on this great victory.
While no one can restore everything these victims lost, this decision will help return a portion of what is rightfully theirs. We cannot repair the trust that was broken, nor can we say definitively that this type of fraud won’t happen again, but this ruling is a big step in the right direction for the victims of Allen Stanford’s massive Ponzi scheme. I also hope it will help restore consumer confidence in the honorable investment banks across the nation.
What exactly does this mean? I wrote a check in 2008 to SIBL to purchase CD’s. I also had other accounts with Stanford which were rolled into CD’s. There were three different CD accounts with a total (invested) value of $2,100,000.00. I reside in the Houston area and my financial advisor worked for Stanford Financial Group. I wrote the check in the Houston office and I was told that all of my investments were safe because they were under FINRA and SIPC.