Repeating Islands

Newspapers and magazines articles are abuzz with news of Texan billionaire Allen Stanford’s indictment and arrest. Charged with 21 counts of fraud, money laundering, and obstruction (last Friday), Stanford faces approximately 250 years in prison if found guilty of all charges. In February, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) launched civil charges against Stanford. It alleged that he fraudulently sold $8 billion in certificates of deposit with improbably high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank Ltd, based in Antigua. His former chief financial officer at Stanford Financial Group has been charged with obstructing SEC, and Stanford himself has been accused of working for the CIA.

What very few articles have addressed is how someone can go from bankrupting twice in the U. S. (once, with his chain of upscale health clubs and a second time, with a “burger joint”) to founding an $8 billion Caribbean banking empire/”Ponzi scheme” unhindered for over 20 years. One article that seems to posit questions about how Stanford could reap profits for so long even though he was being investigated for over 20 years by the I.R.S., the F.B.I., and the S.E.C. is Vanity Fair’s “Pirate of the Caribbean” (July 2009). In this article, Brian Burroughs follows Stanford’s trajectory from Waco, Texas, to St. John’s, Antigua, by way of Montserrat, and offers a glimpse of the full cast of “shady” characters enabling the rise to power of a man who “collected American and European politicians like stamps— a former president of Switzerland sat on his ‘international advisory board’— and in his spare time served as the world’s foremost promoter of the sport of cricket.” Much is made of his possessions (helicopters, jets, restaurants, and mansions in Antigua, St. Croix, Florida, and Texas) and, of course, his libido.

At the time “Pirate of the Caribbean” was written, Stanford had not yet been indicted, but the picture that emerges from this patchwork account of his life seems very unsavory indeed. What is amazing is that any descriptions of Stanford or the Washington senators who received large sums of money, favors, and “fact-finding” trips to the Caribbean, are never couched in disparaging language. “Sleazy” is perhaps the strongest word used to describe Stanford and his “highly questionable accounting practices,” and there are really no adjectives used to denote the moral quality of the senators. The article describes Frans Vingerhoedt, the person who first “dazzled [Stanford] with stories of the easy money to be made operating a bank in the Caribbean,” as “a charming European expatriate.” Meanwhile, the phrases consistently used in reference to the Caribbean and its governments are “corrupt,” “personal fiefdoms,” “criminal activities,” “a haven for Russian organized crime,” and “’notoriously’ lax Montserrat.” Burroughs quotes an unnamed security consultant to give an idea of the corruption surrounding Stanford thus: “There’s a bunch of 300-pound Antiguan women in there, you know, like these women who sell fruit in the market,” and, speaking about Stanford’s compliance officer, “[. . .] out comes this 70-year-old guy who clearly had nothing to do with banking. I mean, he looked like a janitor.” My personal favorite is “Bit by bit, Stanford Financial emerged from its shadowy Caribbean origins.” In spite (or perhaps because) of this illustrative imbalance, the article succeeds in subtly painting a picture of the underpinnings of privilege and (neocolonial) power in the Caribbean. Reading Burroughs’ piece and seeing a photograph of Stanford International Bank in Antigua, made me wonder whether banks are the plantation houses of today’s Caribbean.

Photo of Stanford International Bank from http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8040000/8040576.stm

Photo of Stanford and his Superstars from http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/ecb-expect-stanford-deal-to-continue/2008/12/19/1229189844942.html

For full articles on the indictment, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2009/06/090619_nibweekend.shtml and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/19/allen-stanford-arrested

For Vanity Fair’s highlights of Burroughs’ article, see http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/allen-stanford.html?printable=true&currentPage=all