Shyam
The millions of Indians who are currently drunk on the fantasy that a miraculous means of earning money without any effort, exists, should take note of the following sobering information from the USA.
Yesterday, despite his continued protestations ofinnocence, a Texas court found Allen Stanford (b. 1953) guilty of defrauding 30 000 persons in an Ponzi-style investment scam fronted by a labyrinth of legally-registered, but fake, corporate structures, including 'Stanford International Investment Bank' and 'Stanford Capital Management'. He now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years prison.
On the pretext that he was able to invest money on the stock/securities market and always show a profit, over a period of 20 years, Stanford persuaded wealthy (and often highly-educated) persons (in more than 100 countries) to keep giving him their cash to invest.
At the height of his criminal activities in 2006, Stanford had 30 000 devoted followers who all totally believed that he was a talented investment banker and the 605th richest man in the world. Stanford was linked to leading US politicians and sports stars.
In order to fool casual observers and prevent his victms from facing reality, Stanford used some of his ill-gotten gains to finance a lavish Twenty20 cricket competition in 2008, with a $20millions prize for the winning team. At this time, Stanford's victims had the same valueless pieces of paper which said that they owned a share of 'Stanford international Investment Bank's' $8 billions capital assets.
In the adult world of quantifiable reality, law enforcement agents have only been able to find less than $I billion.
David Brear (copyright 2012)
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