Venezuela freezes Stanford bank board assets

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Venezuela freezes Stanford bank board assets
FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer
February 25, 2009 12:54 PM

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A Venezuelan court has frozen the assets of board members who headed a bank controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Venezuela's government last week seized temporary control of Stanford Bank SA after panicked withdrawals on news of U.S. fraud charges against Stanford and three of his companies.

Though part of the Texas billionaire's Antigua-based empire, the Venezuelan bank is not named in the fraud complaint by U.S. regulators.

The court in Caracas blocked bank accounts of the eight board members and put a hold on their property at the request of a special prosecutor leading an investigation in Venezuela. A court last week barred the outgoing board members from leaving the country.

Read more: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=BUSINESS&ID=565532504640326138

[aquart]

1. Did we do that here? If not. why not?

[Robbien]

4. Because here, board members are in bed with government

while in Venezuela board members fund coups against their government.

[Selatius]

6. That's the quick and gritty explanation for it all. The US gov't is very pro-business historically.

It's one of the reasons why the US gov't has twiddled its thumbs as far as universal health care initiatives goes and reforms to labor laws, and those who have pushed for such reforms have repeatedly been stonewalled by fellow politicians who are bankrolled by corporate lobbyists.

[Fresh_Start]

2. about time that Board Members

shared more than the rewards.

[fascisthunter]

3. Good.....

[Robbien]

5. Venezuela to sell Stanford Bank in 15 days

The Venezuelan government will complete in 15 days the sale of Stanford Bank, following its takeover amidst uncertainty and charges by US authorities of "massive fraud" against Allen Stanford, said on Wednesday Finance Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque.

The official explained that it would be hard for the government to take responsibility for the investments that local investors made in banks seated abroad that are governed by foreign laws and policies, Reuters reported.

"Hopefully, we will complete the sale within 15 days. The monitoring board of the bank has been instructed to proceed at full speed. We have worked non-stop in shifts," said Rodríguez in an interview with television station Televen.

He added that some investors have shown interest in buying the bank, but the monitoring board has to complete the balance to determine the real value.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/02/25/en_eco_esp_venezuela-to-sell-st_25A2235645.shtml

I expect this is the regular bank part of Stanford's holdings. The Stanford International Bank is the organization in which Venezuelans have been squirreling away money to get it out of the country. Chavez said Venezuela has no responsibility for that. Talk to the US he told investors.

[aquart]

7. Was Chavez laughing when he said it?

Or did he wait till he was alone?

[Robbien]

8. If anyone deserves to enjoy a bit of schadenfreude

over the breakdown of Stanford, surely Chavez has earned a right to enjoy a healthy dose of it.

[EFerrari]

11. Chavez laughs like a dictator!

lol

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. He excused himself and went into the broom closet. Witnesses say he came a few minutes later

with teary blood shut eyes.

[EFerrari]

10. When your enemies are destroying themselves, get out of the way. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

12. "It was as if this branch in Caracas was actually located in Miami."

"'It was as if this branch in Caracas was actually located in Miami,' said one Stanford client who invested for 14 years." --Rotters, pg. 3

http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasMergersNews/idUKN1930711820090220?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

--------------------------

Here's the hilarious Rotters article that BoRev did a riff on.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasMergersNews/idUKN1930711820090220?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

http://www.borev.net/2009/02/well_you_knew_this_story_was_i.html
"EXCLUSIVE! HUGO CHAVEZ MADE ME MAKE BAD INVESTMENT DECISIONS!!!"

--------------------------

Amidst the humorous complaints of rich Venezuelans that their fear of Chavez (i.e., of good government) forced them to seek off-shore accounts, the Rotters article reveals the real reasons they did it--avoiding taxes, and avoiding Chavez's "good government" currency regs. Also, they foolishly bought Stanford's ponzi scheme of impossibly high interest yields. They're now worried that the Chavez government will go after their millions in the Stanford Antigua bank on currency violations and tax evasion.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasMergersNews/idUKN1930711820090220?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Re-reading this article helped clear up one point for me. There was the local Stanford bank in Venezuela. That is what the Chavez gov't has rescued from Stanford, to protect local savings/investments. And there are the offshore Stanford banks in Antigua and other places. It is the off-shore--and tax evading, currency reg evading--accounts that the Chavez gov't say they cannot protect. It's out of their jurisdiction. They cannot seize those banks. And the Venezuelan scofflaws who used those banks are likely up shit creek. Well-deserved, too.

More to come? I don't have a good timeline on this story, but last fall, Chavez accused Stanford of being a CIA operation--presumably used for funding the fascist opposition and their various coup plots, and probably also (my guess) the CIA's drug/weapons trafficking. Also (my guess) the Bushwhack CIA may have intended this run on the Stanford Venezuelan bank as part of a coup scenario, possibly connected to the term limits referendum. (The CIA doesn't put its drug money into ponzi schemes without knowing they are doing so.) The Chavez gov't acted quickly, to head that off. They shut it down with 2/3 of the deposits still in the bank.

If this is true--that Stanford Bank was a CIA money-laundering operation--then it might be at the center of a number of plots, including what was looking like the main Bushwhack plot in South America: instigating fascist secession revolts in the northern oil provinces of Venezuela and Ecuador, and the eastern gas/oil provinces of Bolivia. The Bolivian plot went forward in September--and was foiled--in the same general timeframe as Chavez was busting Stanford for its CIA connections. Earlier in the year, Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, had busted the CIA operatives in Ecuador's military (which had colluded in trying to start a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela in March). All in all, I think there was coordination among these leftist leaders in foiling the main war plan. They also had help from Brazil, Argentina and Chile, particularly in the Bolivia situation. But busting Stanford may have been the key. Recently, the Venezuelan fascists were caught meeting with a Bushwhack diplomat in Puerto Rico, trying to arrange a $3 million fund for defeating the term limits referendum. It would appear that their political and money network with the Bushwhack CIA had been disrupted. That may be part of why they had to meet in Puerto Rica (a U.S. territory)--a risky act, since what they did was illegal in Venezuela. The other reason is that Chavez had thrown the U.S. ambassador out of Venezuela (as Morales had done in Bolivia).

Now--this week--Evo Morales has accused an official in the Bolivian state oil company of being a CIA agent. I think these countries will likely continue to be plagued with Bushwhack covert agents, possibly still being paid with our tax dollars, or out of the billions the Bushwhacks stole from us, now in evil private hands--and with Obama still an unknown, as to Latin American policy.

[Peace Patriot]

13. Here's the EFerrari thread on Stanford and the CIA...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x12096

She links to this

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2009/02/pirates-of-caribbean-stanford-drugs-and.html

Among other things, the Cannon article reveals...

"Stanford also owned not one but two airlines: Caribbean Sun Airlines, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Caribbean Star Airlines, based in Antigua. The two entities are, we are told, unrelated.

"Well, if you're a long-time reader, you can probably guess what I'm thinking. Oddball airlines...Florida...the Caribbean...run by a politically well-connected shady operator... Paging Daniel Hopsicker!

(SNIP)

"Let this sink in. The American authorities have thought for the past two decades that this guy was involved in drugs. Yet he was allowed to run an airline service between Florida and the Caribbean."

[aquart]

16. "The CIA doesn't put its drug money into ponzi schemes without knowing they are doing so."

This is when I point out that the Bush administration drove the skilled professionals out of our federal agencies and replaced them with Heckuvajob Brownies. I totally believe BushCo could put money in a ponzi scheme and not know it.

[Peace Patriot]

19. Yeah, but they're laughing all the way to the...um...away from? the bank!

I think their 'incompetence' is a guise, a ruse, a shadow play. Just as with Bush, the numbskull. But Bush wasn't in charge. He just signed papers that Cheney & co. put in front of him, and went out to "play president" in front of the cameras, and couldn't even do that with any panache. LOOK WHAT THEY'VE ACCOMPLISHED as to the billions and billions and billions of dollars stolen, stuffed into their pockets and the pockets of their super-rich friends, and stashed away in foreign currencies. And guess what? They're all running around freely, spending all that loot, and devising their next moves. Your remark is funny, on one level. I laughed out loud. But it's not really true. They are very, very, VERY competent at what they do: Grand theft!

[ronnie624]

17. Definitely a knee-slapper from Reuters.

The author's commentary is blatantly obvious.

[IndianaGreen]

14. K&R

I remember reading about the wealthy worried depositors standing in line outside the bank, unmindful of how lucky they are to live in a country committed to providing basic needs and dignity to all its citizens.

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. Tit for tat - didn't the PNAC gang freeze a whole lot of Venezuela's money a few years back??

.
.
.

Go Hugo

Sorry President Obama - Venezuela is still giving the USA the finger for the PNAC gang's interference in its affairs over the last decade or two

gonna have to bite the bullet on this one methinks

[Judi Lynn]

18. You bet! They got their butts handed to them, in time, as a reward for it, too.

Here's a look at the beginning of that ordeal:

Venezuela moves bank accounts after Exxon freeze
Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:49pm EST

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has moved oil revenue into Swiss banks to avoid a possible seizure of funds by Exxon Mobil in a legal battle that pits leftist anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez against America's biggest company.

The Texas energy giant won court rulings that froze assets belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in a hardball maneuver meant to ensure the OPEC nation pays compensation for taking over a multibillion-dollar oil project last year.

Chavez vowed to fight back, threatening to stop oil sales to the United States -- Venezuela's biggest oil customer -- if it kept up its "economic war" through proxies such as Exxon.

On Monday, the administration of President George W. Bush, which clashes with Chavez over everything from oil prices to democracy, dismissed the warning as "something that we've heard before" from its No. 4 supplier.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN1162822120080211

The ending, one would hope:

US oil giant loses Venezuela case
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A London judge has suspended a court order that froze $12bn of Venezuelan assets awarded to US oil giant ExxonMobil in a dispute over oil interests.

Judge Paul Walker said ExxonMobil had "no good arguable case" that Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Venezuela's state oil company, had acted unjustifiably in taking control of two of its operations.
The ruling came after ExxonMobil won a court order against PDVSA as part of an international arbitration to win compensation for assets seized during the nationalisation of Venezuelan oil fields.

The funds were originally frozen so that ExxonMobil could be compensated should it win arbitration.
"I have today held that the injunction granted on 24 January 2008 against the defendant should be discharged," Judge Walker said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In the absence of any exceptional feature such as fraud, and in the absence of substantial assets of PDVSA located here, the fact that the seat of arbitration is not here makes it inappropriate to grant an order," he said.

'No fraud'

Judge Walker said there was no evidence that there was any international fraud involved, which would normally allow a worldwide asset freezing order to be imposed.

Exxon was ordered to make an interim payment of $765,300 to cover legal costs within 21 days.

Gordon Pollock, a lawyer for PDVSA, said the ruling was "comprehensive" and "ground-breaking".

More:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/03/200852514445700723.html