Allen Stanford's deadly charm offensive

The Texan millionaire hypnotised the ECB with his money. But they've only themselves to blame.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a huge pile of horse manure. That's the lesson we should take from this business about Sir Allen Stanford. It seems that the man who was supposed to save British cricket has disappeared after his lawyer blew the whistle on $8bn that he may have defrauded from investors. And as US marshals stormed his Houston office this week, they'll soon uncover a trail of investors from the Caribbean to Britain left out of pocket.

But they've only themselves to blame. It sounds like Stanford was up to the same dirty tricks as arch fraudster Bernie Madoff. Bloomberg reports how he would fly investors down to Antigua in one of his private jets, show them his mansion and explain over cocktails how you could earn more than 10% each year on your money (no questions asked). All you had to do was entrust your money to Stanford International Bank, the company set up by his grandfather during the Great Depression. It was a deadly charm offensive. The institution claims 30,000 clients and $7.2bn in assets under management, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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