US investigating Stanford links to lawmakers

Federal agents want to know if Stanford, who is accused of perpetrating a US$8 billion fraud got special favors from the politicians in exchange for their Caribbean trips. (Photo: sportingo.com)

FLORIDA, United States, December 28, 2009 – The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly investigating ties between accused schemer Allen Stanford, and several American lawmakers, who allegedly took Caribbean trips funded by the former billionaire.

The Miami Herald newspaper has reported that Democratic New York Congressman, Gregory Meeks, along with Pete Sessions, chairman of the Republican National Congressional Committee, were some of the lawmakers who the DOJ claimed took trips from Stanford.

Now federal agents want to know if Stanford, who is accused of perpetrating a US$8 billion fraud got special favors from the politicians in exchange for their Caribbean trips.

Among them is Meeks, who allegedly was called upon by Stanford to go to Venezuela President, Hugo Chávez, and seek a criminal investigation of Gonzalo Tirado, the president of Stanford’s bank in Venezuela who turned on the financier after being accused of stealing from the company. Tirado had filed a lawsuit and publicly questioning whether Stanford was orchestrating a fraud.

Meeks agreed to carry the message, according to two former US federal agents working for Stanford who were listening to the call on speakerphone, the Herald reports.

The politician allegedly travelled to Venezuela a month later for a series of meetings with Chávez and other leaders. A year after that visit, Venezuelan prosecutors indicted Tirado on charges of swindling and tax-evasion.

Meeks has so far declined comment on the trip but the paper said that his relationship with Stanford dates back to at least 2003, when he joined other representatives on a trip funded by Stanford to Antigua.

Over the next four years, Meeks took five more trips – several with his wife to luxury resorts in the Caribbean – paid for by a nonprofit organisation that was funded by Stanford, the paper reported. (Caribworldnews)