Caribbean360: US Stanford receiver lacks confidence in Antigua courts

US Stanford receiver lacks confidence in Antigua courts
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Chris Hoyos on 29/04/2009 09:26:40
 
TEXAS, United States, April 29, 2009 – The receiver appointed to Sir Allen
Stanford’s companies in the United States (US) has told a court he has no
confidence in the courts in Antigua and Barbuda to properly carry out the
liquidation of Stanford International Bank Limited (SIBL), which is at the
centre of the multi-billion dollar civil fraud charge laid against the Texan
investor.
In a report on his work so far, filed in the US District Court for the Northern
District of Texas, Ralph Janvey said the American court system should be allowed
to deal with the matter.
On April 17th, the High Court in Antigua placed SIBL into liquidation and
appointed Nigel Hamilton-Smith and Peter Wastell as liquidators. The two, Client
Partners at the British firm Vantis Business Recovery Services, had also been
appointed receivers by the court back in February after the US$8 billion fraud
charge was laid against Sir Allen.
“The Antiguan liquidators essentially request that the US Court cede to the
Antiguan court system control over the marshalling, liquidation, claims
adjudication and distribution process. That, in the receiver’s view, would be
unwise and detrimental to claimants, as the Antiguan court system lacks
experience in the administration and winding up of a business of the size and
scope of the Stanford family of companies,” Janvey said in his report.
“Further, the Antiguan liquidators have liquidation authority over only SIBL,
which is just one of the more than 100 Stanford companies involved in what was
an integral – and allegedly fraudulent – operation.”
Janvey has already indicated his intention to challenge the liquidation in
Antigua and said he will also oppose the Antiguan receivers in court in the US
and other jurisdictions where they are attempting to liquidate Stanford
entities.
At the same time, he spoke of looking for opportunities in which cooperation
with the Antiguan receivers is possible and reasonably likely to benefit the
receivership estate.
The case against Sir Allen, three of his companies – SIBL, Stanford Trust
Company and Stanford Capital Management – and two top executives surround the
sale of US$8 billion in high yield certificates of deposit (CDs), sold through
SIBL.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US which laid the civil
fraud charge against Sir Allen, claimed that it was a Ponzi scheme, in which
earlier investors are paid from monies paid in by later investors, rather than
from actually returns on their investments.
Janvey has insisted that although SIBL’s headquarters was in Antigua, all of
its financial operations, including CD sales, were controlled and managed from
Sir Allen’s offices in the US and he should therefore have control of its
assets.