Robert H Brame - Brutal Takeover: The story behind the seizure of the global Stanford Financial Group and criminal prosecution of billionaire R. Allen Stanford

Brutal Takeover

BRUTAL

TAKEOVER

The story behind the
seizure of the global
Stanford Financial Group
and criminal prosecution
of billionaire
R. Allen Stanford

Robert H. Brame

Copyright 2016 by Robert H. Brame

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1519617255

Authors Note

The book you hold in your hands was researched and written inside a United States Federal Penitentiary.

During the three years required to complete the project, its undertaking was kept a closely guarded secret. For reasons revealed within, it was quickly understood by me that the exposure of certain details would involve considerable risk of retaliation.

In an impulsive and ill-advised effort to pauperize and imprison billionaire Robert Allen Stanford, key agencies of the U.S. Government had disregarded international law, and worse had pillaged and plundered like 16th century conquistadores.

Additionally, and as part of their reckless abandon, these same agencies had intimidated with threats of ruinous litigation and worse, members of the Stanford family and others who believe in his innocence and had come to his aid.

Confident that the details of these and other despicable acts were forever buried like a corpse under a maximum security prison, I could only imagine what else they mightve done to keep them there.

Robert Brame

September 7, 2015

To the Readers of Brutal Takeover...

For six years now the many Stanford International Bank depositors around the world have been listening to all the claims about a massive fraud and trying to make sense of them, desperately trying to reconcile what they were told and thought they understood about the Stanford organization, with what has been publicized by the SEC.

A massive Ponzi scheme. Their hard-earned money squandered away on someone elses lavish lifestyle. Most importantly, who was going to pay them back their money? Since the news broke in February of 2009 theyve been referred to as victims of the Stanford fraud, and told that the SEC had stepped in and shut down the Stanford companies in order to rescue them from further victimization. In reality, the only fraud theyve seen evidence of and truly need rescuing from is the one orchestrated by the SEC and committed by their so-called Equity Receiver, a man named Ralph Janvey.

As I write this, these depositors, some of whom have lost their entire life savings and so far have received very little to nothing in the rescue plan, are hopeful that with the pending final disposition of the criminal case against Allen Stanford, things will change and theyll finally get their money back. Theyre tired of hearing that the Stanford companies were all bankrupt, and yet somehow they keep seeing the legions of attorneys involved in their rescue managing to pay themselves millions of dollars. In fact, hundreds of millions of dollars and counting, and with no end in sight. If, as they claim, the Stanford companies were all bankrupt, they wonder then, where in the world are these lawyers getting all of these hundreds of millions of dollars to pay themselves?

For some time, I have been wondering the same.

With these things said, and the real fraud now clear to many of these depositors as well, I wish that I could say that I knew Allen Stanford before this happened, and that I have all along been one of his strongest supporters. The truth, however, is precisely the opposite. Based upon all I had read and heard, I was, in fact, the very worst of skeptics and convinced of his guilt. As a criminal justice reform activist, I have to proceed with caution until Im sure of the facts. For me, those facts have to come from reliable sources, such as the courts. In this case, I truly was not prepared for what I found, and the facts revealed in the legal documents I would read.

I first heard that Allen Stanford was in the Coleman prison through another inmate that I work with, the author of this book, Robert Hal Brame. At the time, I only vaguely remembered the fuss over Stanford, as it was around the same time as the Bernie Madoff scandal. Both were referred to as Ponzi schemers.

After meeting Mr. Stanford there at the prison, Robert had become interested in his story and was soon anxious to write about it. I would hear in phone call after phone call, You wont believe what I just found, or You wont believe what they did to him... and who was involved. And basically, I didnt at first. In time, however, as the research revealed the truth, my skepticism regarding Stanford dissipated. For more than a year at this writing, I have been working with a number of those depositors who have also experienced an awakening. Those who now realize that they have been duped by the SEC and the other rescuers, have become supportive of Mr. Stanford. They now know, as I do, that an innocent man is in prison and that the real culprits here are getting away with one of the biggest frauds in American history.

It is now the depositors hope and mine that the information in this book will shine some light on the guilty, and their machinations in this deliberate evil are revealed. Ultimately, the truths I have come to know will be known to all and will prevail. Then comes the healing of that which can be healed.

Jean Vitayanuvatti

Stanford Support Team

INTRODUCTION

Washington, D.C.
February 17, 2009

At Dulles International, a long and sleek Global Express touches down in a light snow. As its roaring engines spool down, and it taxis alongside an idling Cadillac, the driver of the dark sedan emerges with an umbrella and greets the planes three passengers.

Financier Robert Allen Stanford has come to Washington to meet with attorneys to prepare for a meeting with regulators at the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC). With him are his (then) girlfriend Andrea Stoelker, and attorney Brendan Sullivan from the D.C. law firm Williams & Conley. On the drive into the city, Mr. Stanford receives a call from his Washington office. Hes told that the meeting has been scheduled for 8:00am the following morning, and that a suite has been reserved for him at the Ritz-Carlton.

A self-made billionaire from the tiny town of Mexia, Texas, this meeting will concern his offshore banking and investment operations on the Caribbean Island of Antigua. With 128 offices in the United States and 14 other countries (banks and other affiliate companies), clients in over 140 countries and assets under management or advisement exceeding $60 billion, regulators from the SEC and other agencies have, for the past 20 years, been a constant presence in his business life.

Once inside the swanky hotel on Embassy Row, he and his party shake off the frigid February air and enter the warm and inviting cocktail lounge. Immediately seated at a table near the crackling fireplace, he orders a round of something hot with a shot of rum, and comments to the barmaid about the much more agreeable weather back in the Caribbean.

Little does the light-hearted and unsuspecting Stanford know, he has just traded the sunny Virgin Islands for the darkness of the Twilight Zone.

Moments later, as they wait for their drinks to arrive, an overhead television is switched to a breaking news story on CNN. Heavily armed federal agents have just stormed and seized an office building in Texas. Crime scene tape is being unrolled, and myriad evidence boxes are being carted out to a large truck.