Wednesday, February 26, 2014

U.S. Supreme Court Rules That Victims of Allen Sanford's Ponzi Scheme May Sue

Convicted financier Allen Stanford, who is serving 110 years in prison for his $7 billion Ponzi scheme,
arrives at Federal Court in Houston for sentencing June 14, 2012.


U.S. justices say Allen Stanford victims can sue lawyers, brokers

LINK

Investors in Allen Stanford's $7 billion Ponzi scheme can sue to recoup losses from lawyers, insurance brokers and others who worked with the convicted swindler, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
 On a 7-2 vote, the court held that lawsuits filed in state courts can go forward. The majority said the ruling would not affect the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) ability to enforce securities law as some had feared.

Stanford's fraud involved the sale of bogus certificates of deposit by his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. He is serving a 110-year prison sentence.

New York-based law firms Chadbourne & Parke LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP and insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Plc were sued by former Stanford investors. The investors also sued financial services firm SEI Investments Co and insurance company Bowen, Miclette & Britt.

"It's clear the justices understood that ruling for the defendants would create an immunity that Congress never imagined," said Tom Goldstein, a lawyer representing the former Stanford clients.

Representatives from the two law firms said that when the case returns to the lower court the defendants would move to dismiss the suit on other grounds.

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer said the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (SLUSA) did not prevent the state lawsuits from proceeding. The law says that state lawsuits are barred when the alleged misrepresentations are "in connection with" the purchase or sale of a covered security, which is defined as a security listed on a national exchange at the time the alleged unlawful conduct occurred.

As the defendants in the case were not selling securities traded on U.S. exchanges, "it is difficult to see why the federal securities laws would be - or should be - concerned with shielding such entities from lawsuits," Breyer wrote.

IMPACT ON SEC

The Obama administration, representing the SEC, had sided with the defendants to try to protect the agency's authority to pursue wide-ranging investigations.

The administration said the "in connection with" language in SLUSA that limits state court lawsuits mirrors language in federal law that gives broad authority of the SEC to pursue such misrepresentations.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in a dissenting opinion that the ruling would have a negative impact on the SEC because it "casts doubt on the applicability of federal securities law to cases of serious securities fraud." Kennedy was joined in dissent by Justice Samuel Alito.

Securities law experts backed the majority's view that the ruling was relatively narrow.

Donald Langevoort, a professor of law at Georgetown University, said he was "very surprised" the SEC tried to argue that a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could diminish the government's enforcement powers.

"The opinion is imminently correct as a matter of common sense and legal policy," Langevoort said.

Charles Smith, of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP who represents clients before the SEC, said the agency would be comforted by the limited scope of the ruling.

"The decision is crafted in a way that is intended not to interfere with the SEC's enforcement authority," he said.

The SEC, via a spokesman, declined to comment.

The defendants had sought Supreme Court review after the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2012 said the lawsuits brought under state laws by the former Stanford clients could go ahead.

The former Stanford clients are keen to pursue state law claims because the Supreme Court previously held that similar "aiding and abetting" claims cannot be made under federal law.

The class-action lawsuits filed by the former investors accused Thomas Sjoblom, a lawyer who worked at both law firms, of obstructing a SEC probe into Stanford, and sought to hold the other defendants responsible as well.

The cases are Chadbourne & Parke LLP v. Troice et al, U.S. Supreme Court. No. 12-79; Willis of Colorado Inc et al v. Troice et al, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-86; and Proskauer Rose LLP v. Troice et al, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-88.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing byHoward Goller, G Crosse and Amanda Kwan)

Obama Campaign Pocketed Ponzi Schemer Cash

The Center for Public Integrity | Posted 01.23.2014 | Politics
The Center for Public Integrity Obama isn't the only politician who has declined to return Stanford campaign contributions to help make Stanford's defrauded investors whole. A total of 39 candidates and committees have kept their campaign funds despite the pleas by the receiver.

Ponzi Schemer's Alleged Cohorts Face Charges

Reuters | Posted 10.31.2012 | Business
WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators charged former officials of Stanford Group Co for their role in the demise...

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Lots of people out there are saying the Libor scandal is the worst financial scandal of all time. But how can we even know such a thing? There's only ...

110 YEARS IN PRISON

AP | JUAN A. LOZANO | Posted 08.14.2012 | Business
HOUSTON -- Former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford had plenty of things to say Thursday before a federal judge sentenced him to 110 years in...

Convicted Ponzi Schemer Blames U.S. For Destroying His Business

Reuters | Posted 06.14.2012 | Business
Allen Stanford, facing sentencing for running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, on Thursday blamed the U.S. government for ruining his business and said he n...

Politicians Won't Return Ponzi Payoffs

Michael Winship | Posted 05.09.2012 | Politics
Michael Winship Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford was convicted on 13 out of 14 criminal counts of fraud. But what most stories failed to mention was the large amount of his clients' cash that was spent on campaign contributions, greasing the corrupt nexus of money and politics for personal gain.

Victims: Ponzi Schemer's Conviction Is 'Bittersweet'

AP | JUAN A. LOZANO | Posted 05.07.2012 | Business
HOUSTON — A prosecutor asked jurors on Wednesday to allow federal authorities to seize $330 million from nearly 30 accounts controlled by convic...

The Wheels On the Justice Bus Go Slowly Round And Round

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Houston Financier Convicted Of $7 Billion Investor Fraud

AP | JUAN A. LOZANO | Posted 05.06.2012 | Business
HOUSTON — Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford spent more than 20 years charming investors, who handed him billions of dollars they had spent their li...

Marcus Baram

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Memo to hedge fund managers: It's a bad time to try to overachieve. The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on hedge fund fraud, and t...

Former S.E.C. Official Subject Of Criminal Probe

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal criminal authorities are investigating whether a former U.S. securities regulator inappropriately represented alleg...

PRISON MATES

Posted 05.25.2011 | Business
Jailed financier Allen Stanford has been moved to a prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina, to treat his addiction to anti-anxiety medication, ac...

Accused Ponzi Schemer Stanford Sues Fed For $72 Billion

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As big a fan as I am of strong financial regulatory reform, I'm also something of an SEC skeptic, dating back to that time President Barack Obama appo...

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on the tab of con artist | By Greg B. Smith | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
Queens Democrat, Rep. Gregory Meeks, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Simone-Marie, took six trips to sun-drenched locales from Antigua to St. Lucia...


                          

Friday, February 14, 2014

Mayor Bill Makes A Call To the NYPD, Gets A Friend Set Free and Would Do It Again

Mayor Bill De Blasio and Reverend Orlando Findlayter
 

de Blasio on pastor arrest: Phone call was ‘absolutely appropriate’

, Feb 13, 2014

Mayor de Blasio on Thursday defended his decision to ring an NYPD boss about a pastor pal’s arrest, saying the controversial call was “absolutely appropriate.”
De Blasio also wouldn’t rule out making similar calls in the future, saying such decisions are “made on a case by case basis.”
“It’s absolutely appropriate if I make an inquiry,” de Blasio told reporters, addressing for the first time the criticism that he’d used his influence to help a political benefactor who’d been instrumental in delivering black votes for the mayor.
De Blasio insisted that the phone call he made to a police spokeswoman on behalf of pastor Orlando Findlayter — who was sprung from jail soon after the call — was merely an above-board request for information.
“A prominent member of the clergy was facing an unusual situation,” he said of Findlayter, who’d been pulled over Monday night in East Flatbush for turning without signaling.
Findlayter was being kept in custody due to his having a suspended license and two open arrest warrants for failing to go to court after an October bust at an immigration protest.
De Blasio appeared impatient and dismissive in turn as he spoke to reporters during a press conference on the snow emergency, held at the Office of Emergency Management in downtown Brooklyn.
The mayor said he had found out about Findlayter’s arrest from an aide, Emma Wolf, and then “made an inquiry’ with NYPD spokeswoman Kim Royster.
He stressed that the decision to release Findlayter came from the precinct commander. “The precinct commander made a professional decision,” based on the fact that the open warrants were only for a civil disobedience arrest, he said.
The precinct moved independently and quickly, the mayor said. “By the time I even got an answer the decision had been made,” he said.
“I thought the police commander handled it well,” he added.
De Blasio also stressed that he did not call Police Commissioner Bill Bratton over the matter.
The mayor’s call on behalf of Findlayter — essentially a pastor without a bricks and mortar church after he fell behind in his rent at his New Hope Christian Fellowship church in East Flatbush — has been widely condemned as a tacit instruction to cops to let his buddy go.

Mayor de Blasio calls a top cop after pal arrested — and then the friend is freed

Mayor de Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak confirmed that the mayor called a top police official early Tuesday morning to find out more about the arrest of Bishop Orlando Findlayter, a member of Mayor de Blasio’s transition team, who was wanted on two outstanding warrants.

 
 LINK
Comments (142)
Updated: Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 11:20 AM
A church pastor with outstanding warrants — and a position on Mayor de Blasio’s inaugural committee — dodged a night in the slammer after Hizzoner made a call to one of the city’s top cops.
Bishop Orlando Findlayter, 50, was released from custody early Tuesday after de Blasio inquired about his status.
RELATED: PASTOR, BISHOP, NUN AMONG 10 ARRESTED AT NYC IMMIGRATION REFORM RALLY

It was not clear how many other prisoners were released without seeing a judge that night, but people with warrants are usually held until the matter is cleared up in court.
Sgt. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said the minister should have gone to jail.

RELATED: OBAMA URGES CONGRESS TO COMPLETE WORK ON IMMIGRATION BILL

Bishop Orlando Findlayter is out of jail after his arrest Monday on outstanding warrants
stemming from the clergyman's involvement in an immigration reform protest.


“We don’t let you go. You’re not supposed to let them go. It’s a court order from a judge,” he said. “We can’t circumvent that. This is not a common practice. But I get it. I realize you’re the mayor and you got all kinds of friends.”
Still, cops and de Blasio deny Findlayter got special treatment in this bizarre story that reads like “A Jail of Two Cities.”
RELATED: IMMIGRATION REFORM COULD BE YEARS OFF

Pro-immigration reform activists Bishop Orlando Findlayter and Sister Susan Wilcox are led to a police
van after being arrested in October during a protest outside the ICE Immigration Detention Center.
“Did the mayor call me last night about this particular person and his status?” Deputy Chief Kim Royster told the Daily News. “Yes he did.”
The mayor made the call after members of a local clergy council contacted him and the NYPD after Findlayter’s arrest.
RELATED: TIME TO PRESS GOP ON IMMIGRATION REFORM
Bishop Orlando Findlayter (left) was arrested Monday for outstanding warrants related to his
immigration reform protests in October.
 


The church of Bishop Orlando Findlayler, who was arrested Monday after a traffic stop, leading to
cops discovering two outstanding warrants.
While running a check, police learned Findlayter had an aggravated suspended license due to a lapse in auto insurance, Royster said. Cops took Findlayter to the 67th Precinct stationhouse, where they discovered two outstanding warrants stemming from his Oct. 16 arrest during an immigration protest.
By then, it was too late to take Findlayter to Brooklyn arraignment court before it closed at 1 a.m.
Following de Blasio’s call, Royster spoke with Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lehr, commander of the 67th Precinct. She said Lehr had also been contacted by local clergy. The inspector was already at the stationhouse preparing to give the pastor a desk appearance ticket when she spoke to him, she said. Royster said Lehr told her: “‘Why have a clergyman in the command in jail overnight?’” Lehr, who has worked with Findlayter on community issues, personally released him.
“Did the mayor in any way persuade or say anything to whether or not this person would be arrested or released? Not at all,” Royster said. She added “it’s not unusual” for her to get calls from city officials about individuals taken into custody.
Findlayter, who could not be reached for comment, appeared in court Tuesday and the warrants were vacated, officials said.
With Chelsia Rose Marcius and Kerry Burke