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scion

02/17/09 4:10 PM

#30 RE: janice shell #29

The Caribbean trips sponsored by the council leave lawmakers with leisure time. A trip last year didn't have any mandatory events scheduled after 11 a.m., other than lunches and dinners, and included a stay at Antigua's Carlisle Bay Hotel, where rooms in January can go for $990 a night, according to its Web site.

This year's event was busier, and included a tour of real- estate and road projects, the port of Kingston, and the site of a 2007 cricket tournament, as well as meetings with business leaders and Jamaican cabinet officials.


There's nothing quite like a junket for recharging the batteries of tired politicians.
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teapeebubbles

02/17/09 4:16 PM

#31 RE: janice shell #29

A Ponzi Scheme in Boca? Stanford Group Co. Won't Talk

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2009/02/ponzi_scheme_boca.php

By Amy Guthrie in Business, Palm BeachFriday, Feb. 13 2009 @ 2:44PM

Speculation is rampant in the financial press that R. Allen Stanford -- who Forbes magazine estimates to have a fortune of $2.2 billion, making him #205 on their list of wealthiest Americans -- is the next Bernie Madoff. Forbes says Stanford Financial Group has $51 billion in assets under management. It just so happens that Stanford has an office in Boca Raton that caters to wealthy individuals. The 16 financial advisors listed on this Stanford website profess to have seemingly good credentials, such as studies at reputable universities and work experience with big-name financial firms.


The furor over Stanford was sparked by this report -- written by financial analyst Alex Dalmady. Dalmady and others in the financial world wonder how Stanford can pay unusually high returns on certificates of deposit (CDs). For additional commentary from Dalmady on the subsequent uproar and what led him to check out Stanford in the first place, go to salon.com.

A secretary at Stanford's Boca office refused to forward my phone call to any of the firm's managing directors, saying that nobody at the office knows what's going on. Holly Hinson, spokesperson for Florida's Office of Financial Regulation, says that regulators have the firm "under exam." Hinson says she cannot elaborate further. Brian Bertsch, Stanford Financial Group's press director in New York, says the company will comply with all investigations. When asked whether the money of Stanford clients is safe, he said that the company "follows industry standards for marketing and sales practices."
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teapeebubbles

02/17/09 4:18 PM

#32 RE: janice shell #29

Will R. Allen Stanford Top Bernie Madoff?