ST. JOHN’S, Antigua– Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer says “due process” has taken its course in the trial of disgraced Texan billionaire Allen Stanford who was found guilty in the United States of masterminding a massive Ponzi scheme using his bank in Antigua and Barbuda.
“For me due process has taken its course. For me it was a fair trial. He had the opportunity to testify on his own behalf and for some curious reasons he did not do so, but I think under the circumstances and a fair review of what seemed to have transpired over a period of time that justice has been done,” Prime Minister Spencer told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“So that is not something, certainly for me doesn’t bring any joy in a real sense because I know what it has done to this country. At the same time I am satisfied at least for now this matter is over, due process has taken place. It was a fair trial as I said before and the individual at the center of this had the opportunity to defend himself…and he chose not to”.
The 61-year-old Stanford, who was accused of using his Antigua-based Stanford Investment Bank (SIB) to carry out the US$7 billion scheme, looked down when the verdict was read that he was guilty of 13 of the 14 charges.
Stanford, who at one time was regarded as the biggest foreign investor in Antigua and Barbuda, faces up to 20 years in prison for the most serious charges but could be imprisoned for much longer if a judge orders his sentences be served consecutively.
During the trial, prosecutors labelled Stanford as a con artist who used investors’ money to fund a string of failed businesses, pay for a lavish lifestyle that included yachts and private jets, and bribe regulators to help him hide his scheme.
But his attorneys told the court that the financier was a visionary entrepreneur who made money for investors and conducted legitimate business deals. Stanford, who’s been jailed since his indictment in 2009, will remain incarcerated until he is sentenced.
Spencer said that as a result of the Stanford trial, the reputation of Antigua and Barbuda as a safe place for investment had “suffered”.
“Unfortunately, Antigua and Barbuda has suffered somewhat in terms of its reputation and its image as a result of what would have transpired. But to be quite frank…the reality is in the case of Antigua and Barbuda it could not be said that we did not take the necessary steps to ensure that the regulatory mechanism was in place.
“I think to some extent that those who would have been in a better position to have a better idea as to what might have gone on seemed in a way to have ignored certain developments and I am referring to certain agencies and personalities in the United States of America.”
Spencer said he was not blaming anyone in particular “but I am just saying that when one looks at how things unfolded it is quite possible that the necessarily due diligence which would have been easily developed from that quarter did not in fact take place.
“I suppose in hindsight one could always argue that there could have been more vigilance but I think in all fairness, Antigua and Barbuda as a nation has been hit hard by this, not only in terms of the impact that the empire which was Allen Stanford’s would have had in Antigua, but the fact that this country was made out as a country that encouraged and gave…sustenance if you like to such type of development and that clearly was not the case in my view,” he told CMC.
Spencer said that it must also be understood that the country, its citizens “have also been severely affected”.
“This country has lost a lot as a result of this and sometimes people who look at the situation from other vantage points in the world clearly do not appreciate the fact that we have been hard hit (and) individuals here have lost out as a result of what has transpired as well.
“The government of Antigua and Barbuda has had to intervene to ensure the survival of the Bank of Antigua where hundreds of Antiguans and Barbudans would have deposited monies and so we had to intervene to try and save that. Fortunately for us we were able to get the cooperation of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union in that effort”. (CMC)