– but not substantial, CEO says
Chief Executive Officer of the Hand-in-Hand Group of Companies Keith Evelyn has confirmed that its Trust Corporation has investments in the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB) but says they are not substantial and efforts are being taken to safeguard against possible losses.
According to an advertisement in today’s paper, the investment company has an exposure to the SIB in the form of Certificate of Deposit (CD) investments. Two of the pension plans under its trusteeship are also exposed, the release stated. The investment in SIB is less than 10 percent of the assets of the local investment company, the release stated.
Hand-in-Hand added that any “impairment of its investments in Stanford Investment Bank” would not affect its operations.
It said it has already implemented measures to mitigate any possible losses and was pursuing every effort to recover its investment in SIB. These efforts include communication with the regulatory authorities in Antigua and the retention of the services of a Miami-based legal firm. The Bank of Guyana is well aware of the situation, the release stated.
On Friday, a senior Finance Ministry official told Stabroek News that the government was paying careful attention to the current crisis involving the Stanford Group since at least one major local institutional investor in Georgetown had invested with the company. According to that source, the problem was not systemic and that there was no need to be alarmed.
The Stanford Group headed by Texan Allen Stanford has been put in a spin recently. All the assets of the Stanford Group subsidiaries have been frozen in the US after the Securities and Exchange Commission charg-ed Stanford and several of his employees with fraud in the amount of US$8 billion.
The freezing of accounts at Stanford subsidiaries could lead to a long, complicated process for funds to be unfrozen as claims pour in and the extent of the problem emerges.