'A charismatic dictator': friend's verdict on Allen Stanford

 

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
From the blogs

Why it’s not all quiet on the ‘Western Fail’ front

The 'National Newspaper of Wales', has today found itself at the heart of a Twitter storm. Rob Willi...

Charitable rape: Peacekeepers dirty little secrets

Last summer I travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help establish the first free l...

Islam is not “the enemy” – irrational hatred is

In recent days, Wired magazine in the US reported that a military officer and lecturer in a US prest...

Lady Gaga corrupting youth, Bieber Fever and other reasons for gig cancellations

Are pop concerts the latest battle ground of moral superiority? Well, with Lady Gaga’s Indonesian co...

Allen Stanford ruled as a "charismatic dictator" by using "money, flattery, intimidation and fear" to carry out a $7 billion investment fraud, the businessman's former finance chief told a court in Houston, Texas, yesterday.

Jason Davis, once a college roommate of Stanford, gave evidence against his former boss having pleaded guilty in 2009 to aiding him in the alleged Ponzi scheme.

Facing 30 years in prison for his own part in the crime, Davis said that he had realised as long ago as 1991 that the business he was working for was based on a scam, yet he aided Stanford because he wanted to "please" him. "I was proud, embarrassed. I was a coward," he admitted.

On the most dramatic day of the trial so far, Davis testified that he began discussing the significant gap between what the Stanford International Bank owed its investors and the actual value of its assets one year later.

But his employer reassured him "the bank was going to grow and dwarf this small amount that was so-called missing," he said, claiming Stanford, pictured, believed they would be able to "close that hole".

Having pleaded not guilty, Stanford's defence is that he was merely the gregarious front for the business, and that he was unaware of its illegal and flawed model because Davis, as the man in charge of the accounts, misled him. However, Davis said that Stanford had even joked that he would use this defence if they were ever caught, telling him: "I'll tell them you were on the books and I was out building my companies... I'll just blame it all on you."

Nevertheless, he stayed on as chief financial officer, refusing even to trust his secrets with his wife. "I believed in Mr Stanford – wrongfully so, regrettably so, God forgive me so," he said yesterday. "But I continued to stay there and lie with him."

Davis said that at one point the pair did not speak for three months, but that their relationship could also be the stuff of Hollywood – such as when Stanford took him for a ride in his new Mercedes Benz at 170mph.

Their bank, which collapsed at the cost of investments from thousands of people around the world, had been based in the Caribbean – first in Montserrat and then in Antigua – in order to avoid the oversight of US regulators, Davis told the jury.

He added that Stanford had even agreed to "codify" an agreement which would shield the bank from scrutiny with Antigua's main banking regulator, Leroy King. "Mr Stanford said they actually cut themselves and had a blood oath," said Davis, to the apparent surprise of Stanford in the dock.

Career Services

Day In a Page

Hollywood's former holiday destination of choice to vanish from tourist map

Falling off the tourist map

California's Salton Sea
Life as a hermit: 'My life is a great adventure'

Life as a hermit

For nearly 30 years, Jake Willams has lived as a hermit in the Scottish wilderness
European egrets move to Somerset – for the weather

Herons over here

European egrets move to Somerset – for the weather
Animals left for dead in Indonesian zoos

Zoos of death

Animals left for dead in Indonesian zoos
Millions of Asians watch 'ring of fire' eclipse

Ring of fire eclipse

The annular eclipse in pictures
Bee Gees star Robin Gibb - A Life in Pictures

A Life in Pictures

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb
Antelope first seen 20 years ago is on brink of extinction

Endangered animals

The good news and the bad news
Second best day of his life? Zuckerberg surprises friends with secret wedding

Second best day of his life?

Zuckerberg surprises friends with secret wedding
Laurie Penny: In the age of camera phones the message is that protesters are watching police too

Occupy in the age of the camera phone

In Chicago, you can't see the cops for the cameras
Exclusive extract: How Cameron tried to evade Murdoch's embrace

Exclusive book extract

How Cameron tried to evade Murdoch's embrace
Pathetic fantasist or Nazi spy? The mysterious Mrs O'Grady

Pathetic fantasist or Nazi spy? The mysterious Mrs O'Grady

She was the only British woman sentenced to death for treason during the Second World War. Now, a new book revisits her bizarre case
Introducing the wellderly

Introducing the wellderly

Growing numbers of the over-65s want to keep working, volunteer or go on gap years
Penny Junor: 'I'm absolutely not a friend of Prince Charles'

Penny Junor interview

'I'm absolutely not a friend of Prince Charles'
Joe Strummer: The angry young man who grew up

Joe Strummer

How to remember the punk hero?
Patrick Cockburn: Goodbye to recent delusions - the age of nationalism is back with a vengeance

Patrick Cockburn: Goodbye to recent delusions...

... the age of nationalism is back with a vengeance