– US receiver
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Records show the assets of Stanford International Bank were vastly overstated, leaving only a fraction to pay investor claims, the receiver in charge of Stanford’s operations and assets said in a court filing on Thursday.
In one instance, the receiver, attorney Ralph Janvey, found that 1,587 acres in Antigua that had been purchased for $63.5 million in 2008 were valued at $3.2 billion months later on the offshore bank’s books, according to the filing.
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, two aides and three of his companies have been accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of an $8 billion fraud involving certificates of deposit.
In an interview on Monday, Stanford denied improper action and said he did not directly control the firm’s investments.
Janvey told the court in his interim report that bank records showed that Stanford did not hold any of the certificates of deposit that regulators have said are at the heart of the alleged fraud.
About $7.2 billion worth of CDs were held by public investors as of Feb. 22 2009, according to the filing.
“It appears that the total value of the assets of the estate is likely to be only a fraction of the total amount that would be needed to pay all outstanding CDs and other anticipated claims against the estate,” Janvey said in the filing.
