bin_forgotten : more evidence chavez is nt who he claims to be............................As others fled Venezuela, Stanford International saw a golden opportunity http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/business/worldbusiness/19iht-invest.4.20315335.html?_r=1

On Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford of orchestrating an $8 billion international fraud, Venezuelans joined hundreds of investors and depositors lined up at Stanford International's offices across Latin America and the Caribbean to salvage what they could.On Thursday, Venezuela took control of a Venezuelan bank owned by Stanford, Reuters reported from Caracas.It was the second time in five months that Stanford was embroiled in intrigue in Venezuela. In late October, agents with the Military Intelligence Directorate carried out a raid on Stanford's headquarters in Caracas.In statements to state television, government officials said the raid was related to suspicions of espionage by three Stanford employees.They also claimed to be searching for information on offshore accounts held by Manuel Rosales, a prominent opposition politician who ran against Chávez for the presidency in 2006. Rosales is currently the mayor of Maracaibo, the second-largest city in Venezuela."They were seeking information on some former employees of the bank who were under investigation in an espionage case here in Venezuela," said Hernández, the Stanford spokeswoman. "The case did not advance."

rebuttal:its obvious bin is retarded,he obviously googled something hoping to demonize chavez and thougth he pulled up soemthing incriminating chavez,well it backfired and disproved his claim....one chavez went after bank as didU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Serious Fraud Office in Britain...shut them down and covered the deposits and  aided  depositor in antigas,...Chavez aids Antigua after Stanford fraud scandal http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE57C5KG20090813   Robert Allen Stanford (born March 24, 1950) is a prominent financier, philanthropist,[2][3] and sponsor of professional sports who has been charged with fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Stanford  

Reports surfaced in early February 2009 that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a major U.S. private-sector oversight body, were investigating Stanford's company Stanford Financial Group,[28] questioning the means by which Stanford International Bank manages consistently to make higher-than-market returns to its depositors.[29] A former executive told SEC officials that Stanford presented hypothetical investment results as actual historical data in sales pitches to clients.[30] Stanford claimed his CDs were as safe as, or safer than, US government-insured accounts.[31]

Federal agents raided the offices of Stanford Financial on February 17, 2009,[32] and treated it as "a kind of crime scene—cautioning people not to leave fingerprints."[24]

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allen Stanford with "massive ongoing fraud" centered on an eight-billion-dollar investment scheme.[4][33] Stanford's assets, along with those of his companies, were frozen and placed into receivership by a U.S. federal judge,[34] who also ordered Stanford to surrender his passport.[35]

CNBC later reported that Stanford tried to flee the country on the same day as the raids on his headquarters: he contacted a private jet owner and attempted to pay for a flight to Antigua with a credit card, but was refused because the company would accept only a wire transfer.[36]

FBI agents, acting at the request of the SEC, on February 19 located Stanford at his girlfriend's house near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and served him with civil legal papers filed by the SEC.[37] Stanford was not arrested until June 18, 2009.[38] Stanford has surrendered his passport to federal prosecutors, and he has hired the prominent criminal defence lawyer Brendan Sullivan, who represented Oliver North.[39] The SEC often files civil charges before criminal charges are filed.[40]

Following the allegations, various governments have taken over Stanford's business operations. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) announced that it has taken over the local operations of the Bank of Antigua (BOA) which will be renamed the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB).[41] The Venezuelan Government also took over local operations of Stanford's bank in that nation.[42][43]

On February 27, the SEC said that Stanford and his accomplices operated a "massive Ponzi scheme", misappropriated billions of investors' money and falsified the Stanford International Bank's records to hide their fraud. "Stanford International Bank's financial statements, including its investment income, are fictional," the SEC said.[8][44]

In an interview on April 20 at the law offices of Houston criminal attorney Dick DeGuerin, however, Stanford denied any wrongdoing. His companies had been well-run, he claimed, until the SEC "disembowelled" them.[24]

On June 18, 2009, Stanford was taken into custody by FBI agents.[45] According to DeGuerin:
Federal agents in black SUVs surrounded his girlfriend's house this afternoon, and just sat there. I told him to walk out and introduce himself. So he did, and he asked them, 'If you've got a warrant, take me into custody. If you don't, I'm going to Houston.' And they did, so they arrested him.[9]