Legal
Switzerland To Compensate Victims Of Stanford Ponzi Scheme
Victims of Texas tycoon Allen Stanford's multibillion Ponzi scheme are to be compensated following an investigation by Swiss authorities.
Victims of Texas tycoon Allen Stanford's multi-billion Ponzi scheme are to be compensated following an investigation by Swiss authorities.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said that Stanford Group AG had been fined SFr1 million ($1.13 million) for aggravated money laundering and sentenced to pay compensation between SFr6 and SFr9 million, as well as the costs of the proceedings. Both the fine and the compensatory claims will go to the victims of the investment fraud, the OAG said.
The office said that the criminal investigation on suspicion of money laundering that it had pursued since 2009 has been closed and that all of the assets remaining in Switzerland will be returned to fraud victims.
The attorney general's office also said that criminal prosecution of Stanford and his two accomplices had been abandoned on grounds of their conviction in the US.
During the five-year investigation, the OAG lifted the freeze imposed on bank accounts in Switzerland representing assets in excess of SFr200 million which have been handed over to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority to compensate victims once bankruptcy proceedings against Stanford International Bank Limited, Antigua have been completed.
Stanford, the former board of directors’ chairman of Stanford International Bank, was convicted in June 2012 by a federal jury of orchestrating a 20-year investment fraud scheme in which he misappropriated $7.2 billion from SIB to finance his personal businesses. He was later sentenced to a total of 110 years in prison.
The jury also found that 29 financial accounts located abroad and worth approximately $330 million were proceeds of Stanford’s fraud and should be forfeited. As a result, as part of Stanford’s sentence, the court imposed a personal money judgment of $5.9 billion, which is an ongoing obligation for Stanford to pay back criminal proceeds.
Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that Stanford's victims can go ahead with class action lawsuits against those allegedly involved with the $7.2 million fraud.
