Editorial: Stanford Fraud and the Florida Bar

One thing has become increasingly clear as a result of the Miami Herald’s ongoing investigation into the Stanford Fraud: Allen Stanford would not have succeeded in bilking investors out of billions of dollars without the collaboration of certain members of the Florida bar working under the auspices of the State of Florida and Florida’s “powerful” “politically connected” law firms. What the Texans could not be done in Texas was more than gladly performed in Florida.

The agreement between Mr. Stanford and the State of Florida that established a unique, heretofore unheard of foreign trust to launder money in Miami was so outrageous from the legal standpoint that several knowledgeable attorneys were left aghast by the alleged brazen evasion of the law and breach of ethics by their colleagues. The trust was called a Miami “bank” in order to obtain deposits from trusting Latin American investors. Bags of funds were shipped from Miami to Antigua as related documents were shredded. Regulators stood by, not noticing any “red flags” because they had been hogtied.

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Stanford Fraud and the Florida Bar