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How Allen Stanford Built an $8 Billion Financial Empire on Lies | SLICE WHO | FULL DOCUMENTARY — Transcript

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0:01[Music]
0:05on American TV in the middle of the u0s
0:07you used to see this commercial
0:12[Music]
0:23[Music]
0:31Stanford Financial Group was then a
0:33flourishing Financial Empire that
0:35promised investment returns that were
0:37astounding but fake from humble
0:39beginnings my family has created a in
0:41charge of this massive fraud was a Texan
0:43billionaire Alan Stanford seen here in
0:45his H offices learn I am truly honored
0:49and truly excited to lead our companies
0:51forward in the 21st century he was never
0:53a billionaire that's the point I think U
0:56because it was all a fraud so I mean
0:59what he lived off was other people's
1:00money he stole in excess of $5 billion
1:04from invest from investors either for
1:06his own personal wealth or to build his
1:10Empire in 2008 law enforcement put an
1:13end to this incredible fraud that had
1:16ruined 21,000 victims for over 25 years
1:20this man ran a Ponzi scheme the same
1:23kind of scam used by the famous Bernard
1:27madof he has a unique combination of of
1:30ego narcissism and greed that people
1:33like him and made off and that type of
1:36schemer or fraer typically
1:40possess we have uncovered dozens of
1:43unseen videos internal promotional films
1:45from the Stanford bank which show a life
1:48made up of Lies opulence and
1:52kitch okay the Stanford Legacy began
1:55nearly 70 years ago back in Maha Texas
1:58where my grandfather
2:00his life was fake his history was fake
2:02his bank was fake Alan Stanford is a
2:05white colar criminal who's never hidden
2:07away but instead created a Public Image
2:09as a trustworthy Banker from the way he
2:12dressed to the gold pin to the constant
2:16appearances at Washington mixers or
2:19giving money to nonprofit
2:22organizations it was all an act freeing
2:25himself from laws governments and morals
2:28Stanford built himself an Empire that
2:30allowed him to operate in complete
2:32secrecy it was on a small corrupt island
2:35in the Caribbean Antigua and Barbuda
2:37where he acted like a quasi dictator he
2:40could toss money at the administration
2:42and get his own way and dictate the
2:44policies of this twin Island state of
2:47about 990,000
2:50people in our investigation from his
2:52former offices in the Caribbean to his
2:54banks in Houston and Miami and as far as
2:57his hometown in Texas we found key
2:59Witnesses to this disgraceful
3:03story several former employees who are
3:06close to Alan
3:09Stanford but also a
3:12victim and the prosecutor who brought
3:15about his
3:17downfall they all paint a portrait of a
3:19larger than life criminal with startling
3:22Charisma it's that outsized big ego tall
3:26talking Texan that um it's almost like
3:30Jr and the TV series Dallas right those
3:33kind of figures it's the mythical
3:37Texas [ __ ] liar business person who
3:40will do anything to get ahead and Alan
3:43Stanford was that myth he was perfect
3:45this is the portrait of this Texan
3:47monster the billionaire Pirate of the
3:49Caribbean a true symbol of the failure
3:51of the American Financial
3:56system and this didn't run in is it this
3:58is off
4:02the story starts here in the town of
4:04Mexia Texas it's a small community of
4:076,000 people where Alan Stanford was
4:09born on the 24th of March 1950 his
4:12father James worked in insurance and was
4:15also mayor of the Town his mother Sammy
4:17was a
4:18homemaker although the Stanford family
4:21were well known in the town there was
4:22nothing to indicate that Allan the young
4:24country boy would go on to live a life
4:26of indecent opulence
4:3150 years later Dave Henry became one of
4:33his close collaborators for 10 years he
4:35handled the audiovisual promotion of
4:37Alan Stanford's Financial
4:40Empire fascinated by the story he's
4:43continued to research his former boss
4:45going to be played tonight and I
4:47normally don't get uh emotional
4:52[Music]
4:54or so there you have it egomaniac
4:56martinet soci look it's me about 30 lbs
5:01heavier psychopath that's Alan
5:05Stanford Mah is a very small town in the
5:09Bible Belt as we call it here so
5:13typically very conservative religious
5:15Baptist specifically kind of
5:26people in that environment um it looks
5:30to me like they were probably the
5:31wealthiest family in town uh I went back
5:34and saw newspaper headlines and like one
5:36of their newspaper headlines was Alan
5:38Stanford celebrates fourth birthday with
5:4012 friends you know so Mom would buy the
5:43little article or she'd call the
5:44newspaper editor Allan grew up a lot he
5:48was soon over 6' tall his physique was
5:51exceptional he had an intense gaze a
5:54deep voice a handshake to crush your
5:56fingers and an impressive build
6:01in the late 1960s he gained a degree in
6:04business here at Baylor University very
6:06early the young man seemed obsessed with
6:11success he would tell you I'm not just
6:13going to be rich I'm going to be the
6:15richest person in the world or among the
6:17richest persons in the world so you know
6:20he was driven by this desire to be a
6:23billionaire and to make a fortune in the
6:25mid 1970s Fitness was a promising sector
6:30Americans were won over to the trend by
6:32the muscles of the young Arnold
6:34Schwarzenegger in wakeo Texas Alan
6:37Stanford attended a club in the town
6:38suburbs here in this shopping area full
6:41of confidence he bought it and renamed
6:43it Total Fitness
6:44[Music]
6:50club life was pretty comfortable for
6:53Allen Stanford up until that time I
6:54think you know Dad was paying for
6:57college dad was paying for his house Dad
6:59paid for him to buy his first business
7:01so he was kind of a spoiled upper middle
7:04class
7:06kid Alan Stanford took a gamble making
7:09the club exclusively male it was an
7:12immediate success he was the first clubs
7:14to have these new kinds of you know
7:16weightlifting machines that you know
7:19were all chains and stuff he was he was
7:22able to get those into his club that was
7:25sort of The Secret of his
7:26success Gary Finley was 19 years old at
7:29the time he was looking for his first
7:31job when he was taken on as an unskilled
7:33worker at Total Fitness
7:36club the first time I met him I was
7:38actually inside vacuuming inside the
7:41fitness center and I heard this noise I
7:43went and looked out the window and he
7:44was Landing in a helicopter here's this
7:46guy walks in he's dressed Immaculate
7:48good-looking guy uh just had that had
7:52that uh confidence about himself that he
7:55could pretty much Take On The World in a
7:58few years Alan Stanford opened seven
8:00Ultra luxurious gyms All Over Texas
8:03clients snapped up annual subscriptions
8:05at $11,000 a
8:08piece he knew how to manage the sell
8:11from the time a person walked in the
8:13door till the time they leave so he was
8:15a closer he was the he was a an amazing
8:19salesman the industry at that time was
8:21was all about making money and one of
8:24the things that Allan had uh at least as
8:27far as I knew perfected at that time no
8:29one else was doing was how to create a
8:32bank draft and to draft people's
8:34checking accounts at the age of 30 Alan
8:37Robert Stanford was a married man with a
8:39family and also a daring
8:42entrepreneur but in 1982 in toxicated
8:45with his own success he overstretched
8:48himself he opened an ultr luxurious
8:51complex in the center of Houston in the
8:53middle of the oil crisis with the
8:55collapse of the American economy his
8:57Sports Empire couldn't survive
9:01the form was so dramatic that young Gary
9:03Finley then only a manager was able to
9:06buy the club in
9:11wo Allan was that true look of success
9:15but what I found out after I took the
9:18business over was that probably his
9:20biggest problem was he was taking in
9:24money spending money but wasn't paying
9:26bills and shortly after that maybe a
9:28year or two later he he fil he and his
9:30wife filed personal bankruptcy to this
9:33the fitness King had accumulated debts
9:36of 136 million a crushing failure this
9:40was the start of a dark period of his
9:42life Alan Stanford suddenly adopted a
9:44low profile was the last time I saw
9:47Allan he was flipping hamburgers so
9:50whenever he got out of the Fitness
9:53business the next thing I saw him do he
9:55started a little hamburger restaurant
9:57here in town and I mean I literally saw
10:00him behind the counter flipping
10:02hamburgers the Texan was to reappear 3
10:04years later determined to rebuild his
10:09fortune in 1985 during a visit to a
10:12Caribbean Island he met a European
10:15expert during the conversation the man
10:18gave him an idea for making lots of
10:20money without complicating his
10:23life he was a bit of a financial Wizard
10:26and he explained uh Offshore Banking in
10:29in the Caribbean to Allan Stanford and
10:31how easy it was to set up a bank and
10:33make money and um apparently Stanford
10:36took notes right then and there on a
10:38legal pad in 1986 Alan Stanford arrived
10:42on the island of monser in the
10:44Caribbean an island where money
10:46laundering tax evasion and financial
10:48crime were almost encouraged there were
10:51300 banks for a population of 12,000
10:54people when he arrived Alan Stamford
10:57trusted in his remarkable powers of
10:58persu
11:00Larry dearia knew him well and much
11:02later became his PR
11:06manager he's a very Larger than Life
11:09person I think he's
11:106'4 big head very bonami you know he's
11:15very talks
11:17loud um but it wasn't an unpleasant
11:20experience to meet him if you're asking
11:22me if he if he had the gift for gab yeah
11:24I think he had the gift for
11:25gab um you don't have to know too much
11:28about the financial mock us to sound
11:30intelligent the jargon is not that hard
11:32at all you read the financial press and
11:34you can understand it it's your victims
11:36who don't know the
11:38jargon with his Charisma he attracted
11:41clients in the Caribbean recruited a few
11:43employees and opened the guardian
11:45International Bank with a few dollars to
11:48head it he gathered a team with one
11:50thing in common utter Financial
11:57incompetence there was his father James
11:59Stanford a former insurance agent a
12:02lawyer a judge and even a car
12:06[Music]
12:07salesman Paul Peltier is the prosecutor
12:10who would bring down Alan Stanford 20
12:12years
12:14later a board of directors that was made
12:17up of nobodies people that were either
12:20related by family or by blood or by
12:23friendship to Mr Stanford his father was
12:26chairman or Meritus of the company as
12:29father was still living I think down in
12:31Mahia Texas knew nothing about the
12:33company was just like a
12:35figurehead having already demonstrated
12:37his incompetence in accountancy he was
12:40careful this time to bring in a
12:41trustworthy accountant an old University
12:44friend James
12:47Davis he reached out to his old College
12:50buddy James Davis in order to provide
12:52some Financial credibility and to do the
12:55books and records of this Bank Mr Davis
12:58at least
13:00when he was introduced to the concept
13:02believed it was going to be a legitimate
13:03Bank he soon learned that it wasn't
13:06Allan Stanford had decided not to burden
13:08himself with concerns over legality he
13:11set up a massive scam to steal money
13:13from gullible
13:15investors the scheme from day one until
13:19it ended in 2009 was based on the
13:22concept that he was investing in
13:27equities and safe Investments like
13:31equities um for people across the world
13:35what in reality was happening was about
13:37literally less than 20% of what they're
13:40investing would actually be invested in
13:43these safe
13:44Investments the type of fraud was 100
13:47years old a Ponzi scheme named after a
13:49crook who operated in Boston in the
13:531920s it was a simple but bold Swindle
13:56which involved selling so-called safe
13:58and very lucra Investments to
14:02clients in reality the Investments were
14:05completely bogus Stanford didn't invest
14:07the money and pocketed nearly all of
14:11it but how did he pay people who wanted
14:13to take their money out he simply used
14:16the money of new clients to pay the old
14:24ones as long as you have enough new
14:27investors to pay off old
14:29investors then you have what could be a
14:34beautiful Ponzi scheme well away from
14:36the controls of the financial
14:38authorities in their cozy Caribbean Bank
14:40Allan Stanford and James Davis simply
14:42had to publish falsified accounts to
14:44cover up their
14:47fraud it was a real piece of paper with
14:50a realist Investments that you could
14:52take away and you could audit it and say
14:54yes if these Investments are here these
14:57are the values and you could check it
14:58out
14:59except they never owned any of it
15:01everything was false it was just a
15:02complete false list of Investments which
15:04they had cleverly worked out to give you
15:06the right number on the balance sheet
15:08Alan Stanford quickly became rich in
15:101987 his bank's books stood nearly $15
15:16million but two years later the
15:19authorities on the island of monara
15:21suddenly tightened their banking
15:24regulations in approximately
15:271989 um the monserat Bank officials
15:30found out that Alan Stanford had filed a
15:34bankrupt for bankruptcy in Texas and had
15:37not reported it to them and that was one
15:39of the reasons why he was kicked out of
15:41monserat in the late 80s Allan Stamford
15:44quickly needed to find a new location if
15:46he didn't want to see his fake Bank
15:48collapse like a pyramid of sand
15:50fortunately for him there was no
15:52shortage of tax Havens in the
15:55Caribbean you know you can see Antiga
15:58from
15:59Surat so I can imagine alen Stanford
16:02going huh what am I going to do next and
16:04looking out over the horizon oh there's
16:09Antiga Antigua and Barbuda are two West
16:13Indian islands to the north of guadaloop
16:15and they gained independence in 1981 a
16:18single family ruled over the 80,000
16:19inhabitants the bird family suspected of
16:22dabbling in arms and cocaine smuggling
16:24the dynasty transformed this idilic
16:26country into a refuge for criminals of
16:28of all
16:30kinds one day I go to a lunch and I meet
16:34a man who is a fugitive from the United
16:37States he was indicted in the United
16:39States for bank fraud and he' moved to
16:41Antigua he became a citizen of of
16:43Antigua and at that time the Antiguan
16:46government would not let anybody be
16:47extradited so this American had moved to
16:50Antigua and he was sitting there having
16:51lunch living very well eating some sort
16:54of wonderful seafood salad the next day
16:57who should I run into I ran into a
16:59online gambling King who had spent some
17:02time in a US federal prison so on two
17:05consecutive days you meet people who are
17:08getting in deep trouble with the US law
17:09and they're going to Antigua so it's a
17:12small island but there seemed to be a
17:15relatively High concentration of some
17:18white collar
17:22criminals in the early 1990s Alan
17:24Stanford on leaving monser contacted the
17:27bird family
17:31Martina Johnson is a journalist in
17:33Antigua she's investigated the Banker's
17:38rise so when Stanford would have come
17:40here the government would have welcomed
17:42that sort of investment because it
17:44offered the level of development that
17:46the country has always wanted and has
17:49always sought the bank of antig at the
17:51time in the early 1990s was having
17:53financial
17:54problems he was able to because he had
17:57stolen so much money already already he
17:59was able to make loans and actually
18:02purchase the bank of Antiga to prop up
18:04the bank of Antiga which was very
18:07helpful to the bird family who was
18:08politically in charge he also um was
18:11able to bribe appropriate politicians to
18:13get what he needed to do of course when
18:15you have the head of the organization
18:17that should have been monitoring the
18:18bank that is part of this alleged
18:21corruption then is not that it is not
18:24that it went unnoticed it was just
18:27facilitated and ignored
18:29here there was no FBI or police to
18:32bother him Alan Stanford has found his
18:34own personal
18:38Kingdom in 1991 he built an impressive
18:41headquarters with a lot of Kit columns
18:44the building is one of the most
18:45luxurious on the
18:49island the very modest Stanford
18:51International Bank employed Island
18:53residents no one knew very much about
18:55Finance but that didn't really matter
18:57when you were working in a fake Bank
19:00[Music]
19:03tank today the offices are
19:06[Music]
19:11empty the files of the clients who are
19:13robbed are piled high but you can still
19:16imagine the prosperity that rained here
19:18for over 20
19:20[Music]
19:23years it was like a Hollywood set where
19:27everything was the front of a building
19:29but as if you go and sneak a peek behind
19:33what appears to be the front of a
19:34building there's nothing
19:36there with a fine set you also need a
19:39good story and Alan Stanford had plenty
19:41of
19:43imagination okay he started by inventing
19:46a prestigious family history the
19:48Stanford Legacy began nearly 70 years
19:51ago back in Maha Texas where my
19:53grandfather started Stanford insurance
19:55company during the height of the Great
19:57Depression repeated this Legend over
20:00many years in brochures interviews and
20:02corporate videos like this
20:04Oneal but Lotus stand he may not have
20:07been a real Banker but he became a
20:09brilliant
20:10Communicator we were founded on my
20:12grandfather's strong simple philosophy
20:15build the business step by step building
20:18a business step by step hard work Clear
20:21Vision and value for clients his whole
20:24life story is invented he understood
20:27that people typically are not going to
20:30believe that a man without any Financial
20:35Acumen from Maha Texas is managing a
20:39multi-billion dollar financial services
20:42company um on his own with Eagle Vision
20:45we will continue to search the world for
20:47new investment opportunities Alan
20:50Stanford adopted a highly symbolic logo
20:53the eagle of American
20:55independence the eagle sores the cause
20:58poent
20:59truly has no
21:01boundaries the eagle the eagle he had a
21:04fetish about
21:08eagles every office had a huge marble
21:11Eagle statue um kind of like the
21:14American Eagle you know the aggressive I
21:17might eat you kind of Eagle when he
21:19opened an office in Panama City the
21:22president of Panama came to the Stanford
21:24office opening and the gift was a huge
21:27Crystal eagle
21:29[Music]
21:35this was the mid 1990s and Wall Street
21:38Madness had contaminated the world with
21:40dreams of wealth and investments in
21:42stocks and shares Alan Stanford targeted
21:45a booming Market the middle classes in
21:48South
21:49[Music]
21:52America Jamie escalona an adviser on new
21:56technologies lived in Venezuela at the
21:58time attracted by Stanford's marketing
22:00he invested all of his savings $1.2
22:06million the banks were very kind of nice
22:09luxurious they have a marble and very
22:14nice art in the banks and uh the
22:18economic situations even in Venezuela
22:20and other countries in Latin America
22:23they weren't that stable so we were
22:26looking for stability we didn't have
22:28social security system that works we're
22:31looking for something that will give us
22:32the security for our future to be able
22:35to retire and to pay for our children's
22:37education as well the internet was still
22:40in its early days and there were few
22:42trustworthy sources of information so
22:45jam es colono wasn't suspicious
22:47especially since the Stamford Banks were
22:49offering profitable and very safe
22:50Investments known as certificates of
22:52deposit or
22:56CDs a unique thing about certificates of
22:59deposit usually they tend to be
23:01long-term Investments that helps a Ponzi
23:04scheme because you don't have a lot of
23:06people withdrawing their money at the
23:08same time because people are waiting for
23:10the maturation of the certificate of
23:13deposit the financial advisors they
23:16presented material they were very
23:18convincing material with the brochures
23:21and also letters of or guarantees that
23:24our investments would be
23:25secure and really the Investments
23:28weren't that higher than other Banks
23:30they were like 1 2% higher so we didn't
23:33see that the the Investments or the
23:36returns that the bank's offering they
23:39were really out of whack they were kind
23:41of within reason so we felt
23:45comfortable like Jamie entire families
23:48invested between $10,000 and $1 million
23:51with unquestioning
23:54faith these huge sums almost all ended
23:57up in the pocket of Alan Stamford the
24:00con man boosted his Communications he
24:02spent more and more on all sorts of
24:03corporate videos and even on TV
24:05commercials broadcast on major channels
24:07like CNN
24:13[Music]
24:28must have an e Dave Henry was his
24:30in-house video producer he worked on
24:33more than a hundred of these films he
24:35worked on the image stuff you know he
24:37didn't work on the numbers when I saw
24:39him working it was working on scripts or
24:42working on
24:43brochures or working on the next video
24:47or working on what he was going to say
24:48when CNN interviewed him that day all
24:51right ready we are revamping our
24:54marketing strategy in effect we are
24:56Reinventing ourselves he was
24:59lying and it's easier to tell a lie once
25:02and have it
25:03videotaped than have to tell it over and
25:05over and over in
25:07person Alan Stanford encouraged everyone
25:10to act for the camera the salespeople
25:13were naturally
25:15[Applause]
25:16talented and even James Davis his
25:18valuable accountant was forced to appear
25:20on camera four new platform funds were
25:23established to me the the most
25:25interesting thing that I found in my
25:26tape library in going back and looking
25:29at the two characters that are Alan
25:31Stanford and Jim Davis is we never
25:33pierce the armor of Allen Stanford he's
25:36always this guy confident bold I never
25:40saw a moment of Doubt when you go back
25:43and look at his right-hand man Jim Davis
25:46on tape man he was
25:49nervous stuttery had a lot of ticks you
25:53think in terms of did did I satisfy that
25:55need versus what it was the money
26:00would stare off into the distance when
26:02he was done with a take as if wondering
26:05about what he just said and that
26:07contrast only illuminates what an actor
26:10Allan Stanford was our business has
26:12expanded at such a rate that we now
26:16occupy Alan Stanford the actor when he
26:19wasn't playing the banker for the camera
26:20or falsifying the accounts dedicated
26:23himself to what he did best spending his
26:25Investor's money
26:28personifying the famous American saying
26:30he became Larger than
26:35Life he would often buy um real estate
26:40buy planes and buy boats he bought a
26:43mansion in Miami um which was a castle
26:46the house in St Croy I've seen it's
26:48amazing it sits up on a hill overlooking
26:51one of the harbors it was a superstar
26:54house really
26:56cool in these rare videos filmed by
26:59American law enforcement after his
27:00arrest we see the Texans unimaginable
27:07lifestyle this house comprises dozens of
27:10rooms a meeting room suitable for a spy
27:13movie with a retractable
27:19screen a gym and a collection of clothes
27:26shoes and beer
27:31on the island of sanqua Alan Stanford
27:33owned six other properties and even a
27:36shopping
27:37mall in Texas and Florida he owned more
27:40houses and luxury
27:42apartments but he spent most of his time
27:45at Sea aboard his Sea
27:51Eagle Allan Stanford had a very nice
27:54yacht but he wanted it to be 10t longer
27:57so rather than just buy a yacht that's
28:0010t longer he actually had this yacht
28:04expanded uh 10 or 12et longer which cost
28:08more than $100 million to to
28:12expand he had seven airplanes that he
28:15bought so he bought whatever toys he
28:19needed at the time and he had a full
28:21service group of Pilots servants and and
28:26people around him that that he was
28:28paying constantly so he led a very good
28:31lifestyle at the turn of the century
28:33Alan Stanford was an immensely wealthy
28:35criminal who'd never been bothered by
28:37the American
28:42[Music]
28:45authorities at Fort Worth in the Texas
28:48offices of the Securities and Exchange
28:50Commission the American Financial
28:51Watchdog Alan Stanford had been
28:53suspected of financial fraud since 1997
29:00two reports highlighting his activities
29:01had already been produced and yet in
29:03spite of repeated requests by
29:05investigators those in charge refused to
29:07open an
29:08investigation it was an individual in
29:10Fort Worth who was in charge of the Fort
29:12Worth Texas SEC enforcement division his
29:16name was Spencer barish as soon as he
29:18left the SEC um Allan Stanford tried to
29:21hire him we do know on one occasion
29:24without the permission of the SEC and
29:26behind the back of the SEC he actually
29:28met and provided services for Allen
29:31Stanford in exchange for money certainly
29:34it lends suspicion to the reasons he may
29:38have rejected the exam division's
29:41request for Action by the enforcement
29:44division Larry de Maria who is a Trader
29:47and Wall Street journalist says this
29:49kind of murky relationship was
29:52common you're making $100,000 a year uh
29:56for the SEC and then you're
29:59investigating somebody will pay you
30:00$250,000 a year or what are you going to
30:02do it it's happened all the time the
30:05laxity allowed the fraud to grow to a
30:07colossal scale between 2000 and 2001
30:11Stamford International Bank announced
30:13record growth of 44% and for the first
30:16time in its history turnover of more
30:18than a billion
30:20[Music]
30:22dollars was by then a multi-billion
30:25dollar company that was all over the
30:27newspaper was in New York and was making
30:29inroads not only in the Caribbean but in
30:32New York London uh Zurich and elsewhere
30:35across the
30:37world wealth no longer seems to be the
30:39only goal of the Texan monster in these
30:42videos he displays more and more signs
30:44of excessive
30:46[Music]
30:48ego I've accomplished something that uh
30:51very few people have accomplished in
30:52their lifetime making money anymore is
30:55not my driving thing doing something
30:58that I enjoy and a change
31:01and ultimately is something that I feel
31:04real good about that's what's driving me
31:06Alan Stanford's personality gradually
31:08became
31:09unfathomable was he an exceptional
31:11mythomaniac or really schizophrenic he
31:14believed things about himself which were
31:17patently untrue maybe he came to believe
31:20that he was related to the to the
31:22founder of Stanford University maybe he
31:24came to believe that he was a genius
31:26with money maybe maybe he came to
31:28believe he was aristocracy I personally
31:31think he came to believe his own myth
31:33that it wasn't it was an act but he came
31:35to believe his own act on the island of
31:38Antigua Stanford full of his own
31:40importance made himself a small Kingdom
31:42for his
31:43glory as you arrived at the airport
31:46everything belonged to him starting with
31:48the
31:50airline as you went up the Avenue you
31:52saw his
31:55bank then the Sticky Wicket arrest
32:00several financial
32:02institutions a fine dining
32:06restaurant and even an observatory to
32:08admire his
32:10[Music]
32:11domain he had so many businesses he was
32:16the second highest employer in Antiga
32:19after the government it was Stanford 900
32:22plus
32:24workers none of those made money they
32:27all lost money and the airline I think
32:29cost him cost him cost the investors
32:32about $300 million before he shut it
32:34down
32:36again he owned property but he also
32:38wanted to own mines he created his own
32:41propaganda tool the Antigua
32:47Sun every week cop fantic articles were
32:50published in Praise of Stanford Antiga
32:52and the government
32:55[Music]
32:58in these editions dating from 2006
33:00dozens of pages were devoted to a single
33:02event Alan Stanford had just been
33:04knighted by the government of
33:09Antigua his nigh Hood um many antiguans
33:13and I don't want to say most but many
33:15antig Gans were against it to get our
33:18highest national award would have been a
33:20slap in the face of residents who
33:22thought that he was too pomp us and he
33:25tossed money at them and he thought very
33:27little of the people who live here when
33:29he was kned he he did refer to himself
33:33as Sir Alan Stanford and and required or
33:36requested people to to call him sir
33:38Allen Stanford as well what do you call
33:41somebody who thinks big but just doesn't
33:44have enough to do it you know they just
33:46don't they think bigger than they
33:49are
33:51egomaniacs that's what you call them in
33:54private Stanford also behaved like a
33:56medieval Lord
33:59a powerful Sovereign who no one could
34:02resist he was a Serial womanizer but one
34:05time I was with him at a cocktail party
34:07I happened to be standing in the same
34:08conversation group and he uh somebody
34:11said you look a little rough today Allan
34:13or Mr Stanford and he said oh I'm hung
34:16over I got in early this morning I took
34:19my jet down to Port OFA last night I was
34:21chasing some
34:23[ __ ] so that was the kind of guy he was
34:26right here's the CEO he's everybody who
34:29was standing arounds boss and yet he
34:32would just tell you that he was out
34:35chasing skirt would be a nicer way of
34:37saying that um but that that just you
34:41know he didn't mind it was not a a
34:44secret that there were uh wives past
34:46wives girlfriends children from many
34:49women when he wanted something Stanford
34:52had no limits in 2005 he paid $65
34:55million to buy himself an Island he own
34:59made an island just off the shore of
35:00Antiga here which he built a dummy house
35:03if you like to see how it would look and
35:05then knocked it down with a view to
35:07building it permanently
35:08[Music]
35:10later this was Alan Stanford's
35:12Monumental plan to transform his private
35:15island he wanted to build a club and a
35:18marina with capacity for up to 30
35:25[Music]
35:26yachts in Antigua the impression of Alan
35:29Stanford's ostentatious and opulent
35:31wealth was in strong contrast to the
35:32small wooden houses with corrugated
35:34roofs and the Caribbean islands reggae
35:36rter
35:39atmosphere there were some people who
35:41who saw him as an investor who had
35:44interest in the development of the
35:45country and so he had great support from
35:47that group and then there was this other
35:49group uh that thought he was just here
35:53to grab our lands he was just here to
35:55take all the pristine properties and
35:57this man with money who is White is
36:00coming to manipulate this little island
36:02and our leaders just accepted Monies to
36:07give him his way the local newspaper
36:09Outlet even wondered whether it was the
36:10government or Alan Stamford running the
36:13country many had no doubt that the
36:16island had gone from being a British
36:17colony to a Stanford Colony Alan
36:20Stanford was a massive individual in
36:24antean when I say massive um he was
36:27powerful
36:28he was a dictator the residents in antig
36:32Barbuda protested against Stanford for a
36:34long time Stanford had given bread to
36:37the antiguans but now he was going to
36:39give them Sports to ensure their
36:41silence his greatest coup was funding
36:44the most popular sport in the Caribbean
36:48Cricket When Alan Stanford does
36:50something he doesn't do it by halves he
36:52does it to its best opposite his bank he
36:56built a magnificent Stadium with a giant
36:58screen the Stanford cricket
37:01ground here is Alan Stanford Richards in
37:052005 he brought together the best
37:07players from the Caribbean in a single
37:09team the
37:11superstars he set up a professional
37:13tornament in his name in which Caribbean
37:15teams played against the greatest
37:17nations in cricket such as
37:20[Applause]
37:25England it's give life to a sport that
37:28we love here in the Caribbean cricket
37:31and it put us on the international
37:33market because everyone ESPN the world
37:36was watching the Caribbean at the
37:38Stanford cricket ground Antiga was his
37:40Haven Bish I have one thing to say it
37:42was one hell of a
37:44[Applause]
37:52game away from reality Alan Stamford
37:55started taunting Wall Street in the mid
37:59naughties he tried to poach workers from
38:02historic Banks like meril Lynch or lman
38:05brothers I am Stanford I am Stanford I
38:08am Stanford all these Traders came with
38:09their clients potential future
38:17victims Charles Haslett formerly at
38:19meril Lynch joined the Stanford Bank in
38:222002 attracted by the Texans persuasive
38:24arguments he was aloof and
38:28distant most of the time but if he was
38:30talking to you or trying to motivate you
38:33he could be very motivational
38:3593,00 he threw around a lot of money um
38:38you know mention big bonuses I want a
38:40car I want a $100,000 car for selling
38:42the most CDs uh he delivered on
38:47that you know it was Big Show in front
38:49of the other employees you know a round
38:52of applause for me kind of a little bit
38:53embarrassing actually for me you know I
38:55didn't like to be put in that position
38:57but he was happy to win the car Alan
39:00Stanford continued to gratify his need
39:02for power even when he was rewarding his
39:07employees at ceremonies like this one he
39:10prolonged the suspense by lining up the
39:12finalists on stage before announcing who
39:14would win the prize he must have spent
39:1710 minutes walking behind each one of
39:19them and he tapped one on the shoulder
39:20of course that person thought they won
39:22the
39:23$10,000 and he go you know
39:26orelio did a good job walked in and you
39:29touched the woman and go all the way
39:30across and back and forth I compared it
39:34to like someone pulling Wings off of
39:37flies that's how horrible it was even
39:39even people in the audience were
39:41shifting around I've never seen a more
39:43egotistical
39:45egomaniacal performance by a person in
39:48my life and he finally tapped somebody
39:49on he was just getting off on making
39:52these people feel uncomfortable to
39:53ensure the devotion of his employees he
39:55spent money lavishly in New New York
39:57Stanford invited 300 financial advisers
40:00to the InterContinental Hotel the cost
40:02of the festivities was $1.5
40:05Million there was a recreation of Studio
40:0954 disco so they had a huge Ball Room in
40:13Midtown
40:14Manhattan decorated like Studio 54 with
40:18actors playing the famous people who
40:21hung out in Studio 54 like Andy warhole
40:24Elton John Bianca Jagger and they were
40:27going around with boxes of props making
40:29sure you had fun this party was over the
40:33top but that was typical they they'd go
40:35to a city and and go nuts for the
40:37weekend New Orleans Caracas
40:43London everybody in the office kind of I
40:46believe knew or had the same questions I
40:48did but nobody would speak up they were
40:51all making good money it's kind of you
40:52look the other way because you're making
40:55your you know your annual income is
40:56probably twice what it normally would be
40:58you know in 2008 Alan Stanford was the
41:02205th richest American according to the
41:04Forbes Magazine ranking his fortune was
41:07estimated at $2.2
41:11billion but the Tex and giant would see
41:14the base of his pyramid gradually start
41:16to
41:20crumble a handful of honest employees
41:23started to ask difficult questions
41:25Charles Haslet was one of them
41:27[Music]
41:29he wondered why an International Bank
41:31used a tiny accounting firm that was
41:33completely
41:36unknown their answer was that they had
41:39been with them for 20 years it's a small
41:41firm it's very
41:43well-run uh that I should have no
41:45concerns I wanted more answers than they
41:47wouldn't give them to me at that point
41:50it became more like uh you know are you
41:52family are you are you do you trust us
41:55are you part of the team you know
42:00it was basically like this either I
42:01conform to how things are how things are
42:05and not ask any more questions or I
42:07resign so I didn't want to resign right
42:10away I said let me think about it and
42:13within 24 hours I did resign Larry de
42:16Maria also suspected massive fraud but
42:18he couldn't ask questions
42:21either he had four women who worked on
42:24desks leading up to his office and then
42:26he had woman named Yolanda Suarez who
42:29was his chief of staff and it would have
42:31taken I think the first Marine Division
42:33to get through those four people to get
42:34into his office I think I was in his
42:37office maybe three
42:39times Larry was eventually fired for
42:43incompetence Alan Stanford attacked
42:45anyone who doubted
42:47him he sued everyone who came near him
42:50with any kind of complaint I mean he had
42:5330 in-house lawyers and he had some top
42:56uh outside counsel
42:58so I don't think he thought he had
42:59anything to worry about but in September
43:022008 The Noose started to tighten the
43:05world was experiencing the worst
43:07financial crisis in history which two
43:09months later brought about the very
43:11public arrest of Bernard madof who ran a
43:13Ponzi scheme worth $65
43:16[Music]
43:19billion that warning would have worried
43:21the most determined of criminals but not
43:23Alan Stanford who proclaimed loud and
43:25clear that he would come out of the
43:26crisis without a blemish International
43:29Advisory board meeting but our balance
43:30sheet is strong our liquidity is
43:34exceptional and we are in these
43:36difficult times going to grow our
43:37business and I think that his downfall
43:39was close but Alan Stanford was in total
43:43denial for years he thought he'd gained
43:45the protection of the American political
43:47class by contributing to election
43:49campaigns the businessman gave a total
43:51of $1.6 million to the Republican and
43:54Democrat parties
43:58one of the beneficiaries was Barack
43:59Obama in
44:002008 that same year he contributed
44:04$200,000 to the Democrats Congressional
44:07Campaign at the party's National
44:08Convention he was warmly thanked by Bill
44:11Clinton and I'd like to thank the
44:14Sanford Financial Group for helping to
44:16underwrite
44:18this in 2008 George Bush also thanked
44:22him in this official letter
44:24[Music]
44:27companies like yours are helping more
44:29Americans build a solid foundation for
44:31the
44:32[Music]
44:38future despite these connections the con
44:41artist couldn't hold out much longer his
44:43bank claimed to hold $8.5 billion
44:46whereas in reality it only had 20
44:50million the only reason these guys were
44:53caught was because during the financial
44:55crisis everybody want they got everybody
44:58got scared in this country with all the
45:00mortgages going down people being thrown
45:01out of work people wanted to get their
45:03money back and for the first time in his
45:07history the new Investments were not
45:10sufficient to cover the withdrawals they
45:13didn't have the money to give them back
45:14was that's what it's a pzi scheme so
45:17that's why they were caught the
45:18government didn't catch them the media
45:19didn't catch them they were caught
45:22because there was other Crooks brought
45:24down the financial system the complaints
45:27were piling up and in February 2009 Paul
45:30Peltier a prosecutor in Florida
45:33succeeded in worrying Alan Stanford he
45:35arrested Laura pendas Holt one of his
45:37close collaborators for a minor offense
45:40in order to try to obtain
45:45information we attempted to interview
45:49Laura
45:51pentago after her arrest um um but that
45:55was not successful because um she she
45:58quickly got an attorney and and the
46:01interview interview was ended before we
46:03um were able to examine her about the
46:07assets or the lack of Assets in in
46:09Stanford International Bank but this
46:12first arrest was to bring down the
46:14fraudsters Empire like a house of
46:17cards that was the seminal event for
46:22obtaining the rest of the evidence that
46:24this
46:25whole uh Enterprise was a big Ponzi
46:28sche Jame Davis saw her
46:32arrest quickly and knew that he was next
46:36and he did not want to be arrested that
46:38way he readily admitted that the um
46:43Stanford International Bank was a Ponzi
46:45scheme from day one and that they had
46:48been lying to investors with false
46:51accounting false results false reports
46:54and they had been mishandling the
46:56Investments for a long long time
46:59approximately 25 years Alan Stanford was
47:03arrested on the 17th of February 2009 in
47:05Virginia hiding in a girlfriend's house
47:08he was immediately sent to prison but he
47:11didn't seem to realize what was
47:12happening and claimed he was
47:15innocent he went on TV a couple of the
47:18times saying that this was all a big
47:20mistake a big misunderstanding that the
47:22Investments were there that there was
47:25hard assets um and that there was5
47:28billion and that this was a big scheme
47:30by the SEC to to ruin him at the time
47:34Aram Roston obtained an interview with
47:36Alan Stanford who pretended to be
47:37surprised he acted very heartfelt he
47:42tried to get across that his world was
47:43now collapsing and he tried he tried to
47:46make it sound that he deserved pity he
47:50implored me at one point I remember he
47:52said think imagine have you ever lost
47:55somebody have you ever lost lost a loved
47:57one has anybody ever close to you ever
47:59died he said that's what it's like for
48:02me now because of course he's comparing
48:04this to losing his company and
48:05everything he owned all his accounts
48:07were frozen and on the 17th of February
48:102009 the SEC closed all the Stanford
48:12Banks and raided the offices in Houston
48:14ladies and gentlemen uh a federal court
48:16has uh put this entity under uh
48:19receivership for the investors it was
48:23chaos we went to the bank and there were
48:26a lot of people there at the bank in
48:28trying to get into the building there
48:29were hundreds of people lying up uh
48:33people crying people
48:35panicking were trying to get the the
48:38financial advisers getting some answers
48:41there were so many people there it felt
48:43like it being in a riot within a
48:47bank meanwhile in prison Alan Stanford
48:50was savagely beaten up by a fellow
48:54Dei he got famously beaten up really
48:57really badly in prison um it's it's been
49:01a rough it's been a rough go for Alan
49:04Stanford I can't say I feel sorry for
49:06him but he hasn't gotten the country
49:09club treatment that so many white collar
49:11criminals get in this country he's had
49:14the real Penitentiary
49:17experience the trial started in Houston
49:19in 2012 over 7 weeks Alan Stanford's
49:22arguments were very very vague given the
49:25damning proof
49:28he showed absolutely no Humanity towards
49:30his 21,000
49:34victims he was
49:36very
49:38unsympathetic didn't see any emotions he
49:40didn't
49:41uh make any
49:44any apologies to the victims the people
49:47affected
49:49so uh it's one of the things that uh he
49:53didn't apologized in May 2012 he was
49:56sent SED to 110 years in prison his
49:59victims have so far received only one
50:01cent for every dollar
50:03lost for Jamie that corresponds to
50:06$9,000 out of the $1.2 million invested
50:09so for the last 7 years he's been
50:11fighting to highlight the situation
50:12through his victims group I try not to
50:15get sentimental is very kind of
50:18difficult for me to receive a personal
50:20stories about people
50:23dying um people desperate sometime
50:26asking me for help because uh they don't
50:29have food or they don't have money to
50:31pay for
50:33operations uh it's terrible this see
50:36having even young people and older
50:39people dying and all being able to pay
50:42for their living
50:45expenses it's very hard when I receive
50:48all these letters it's telling me my
50:51husband died he had a heart attack he
50:54couldn't handle losing everything after
50:5750 years working
51:03hard this case was important to me
51:07because we were able to put the bad
51:10people in jail but we were never able to
51:12finish recovering their money I left the
51:15government in
51:162011 and um so I was never able to
51:20finish the job of recovering the money
51:22for the victims and that you know still
51:25bothers me today
51:27Alan Stanford is now 66 years old and he
51:30will end his life in a prison in Florida
51:33his story is rarely in the media these
51:35days and yet it was the second largest
51:37Ponzi scheme in
51:41history this is a story that that hasn't
51:43been told that's not getting enough
51:45attention because it's lived in the
51:47shadow of Bernie ma off and it's a it's
51:49a real American Tragedy you
51:52know there's so many victims and it's
51:54put so many people in such a bad place
51:56and the US government did a terrible job
51:59of monitoring it seemed to me that the
52:02entire very sophisticated Wall Street
52:06and American systems of finance and law
52:08banking had all conspired to let him
52:12happen and so I think the Allen Stanford
52:15story is a story of the complete failure
52:17of the
52:18American um Financial system people are
52:21always looking for better return so when
52:23there's someone dangling that carrot
52:25which was Alan Sanford people bite and I
52:28think it was a combination of those
52:29things ponis have been around forever
52:32you know they're they're going to still
52:34continue uh and are normally done by
52:36people that are smart charming and uh
52:40and organized and know and know how to
52:41do
52:42it true to himself Alan Stanford is
52:45still trying to write his own
52:47myth on his own he's written a case
52:50review request running to 300
52:55pages and published a book written by a
52:57fellow detainee its subject is an
53:00innocent man who is broken by being
53:02thrown in prison
53:04[Music]

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