Allen Stanford

His father, James Stanford (1927–2021), was mayor of Mexia and a member of the Board of Directors of Stanford Financial Group.

His mother, Sammie (née Conn), is a nurse.

Robert Allen Stanford (born March 24, 1950) is a convicted financial fraudster, former financier, and sponsor of professional sports.

After his parents divorced in 1959, Stanford and his brother went to live with their mother.

Stanford graduated from Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1974, Stanford graduated from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, earning a BA degree in finance.

Stanford started in business in Waco, Texas, opening a bodybuilding gym that failed.

His first success in business came from speculating in real estate in Houston after the Texas oil bubble burst in the early 1980s; his father was his partner in this venture.

The men made a fortune in the 1980s, buying up depressed real estate and selling it years later as the market recovered.

Stanford moved to the Caribbean in the 1980s, first to Montserrat, then to Antigua.

With Stanford Finance, he started Guardian International Bank on the island of Montserrat in 1985; he moved it to Antigua during a British crackdown on Montserrat's offshore-banking industry in the 1980s, renaming it Stanford International Bank, an affiliate of Stanford Financial.

After his father retired in 1993, Stanford took control of the company, which by then had 500 employees.

Early in 2007, Stanford and Baldwin Spencer, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda and formerly an ally, began verbally feuding in public.

In early 2009, Stanford became the subject of several fraud investigations, and on February 17, 2009, was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud and multiple violations of U.S. securities laws for alleged "massive ongoing fraud" involving $7 billion in certificates of deposits.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Stanford's offices in Houston, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Tupelo, Mississippi.

On February 27, 2009, the SEC amended its complaint to describe the alleged fraud as a "massive Ponzi scheme".

He voluntarily surrendered to authorities on June 18, 2009.

In 2009, Antigua's Financial Services Regulatory Commission named a British firm, Vantis Business Recovery Services, the receiver for Stanford International Bank and Stanford Trust Company, the Associated Press reported.

Reports surfaced in early February 2009 that the SEC, the FBI, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a major U.S. private-sector oversight body, were investigating Stanford Financial Group, questioning the consistently higher-than-market returns which Stanford International Bank claimed to make for its depositors.

A former executive told SEC officials that Stanford presented hypothetical investment results as actual historical data in sales pitches to clients.

Stanford claimed his certificates of deposit were as safe as, or safer than, U.S. government-insured accounts.

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

The SEC charged Stanford with "massive ongoing fraud" centered on an eight-billion-dollar investment scheme.

Stanford's assets, along with those of his companies, were frozen and placed into receivership by a U.S. federal judge, who ordered Stanford to surrender his passport.

CNBC 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.

On February 19, acting at the request of the SEC, FBI agents located Stanford at his girlfriend's house near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and served him with civil legal papers filed by the SEC. The SEC often files civil charges before criminal charges are filed.

Stanford was arrested on June 18, 2009.

He surrendered his passport to federal prosecutors, and hired criminal defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan, who had represented Oliver North.

Various governments took over Stanford's business operations.

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank announced that it had taken over the local operations of the Bank of Antigua, which was renamed the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank.

The Venezuelan government took over Stanford Bank Venezuela, the branch of Stanford's bank in that nation.

He was convicted of fraud in 2012, having operated an eight billion dollar Ponzi scheme, and is now serving a 110-year federal prison sentence.

Stanford was the chairman of the now-defunct Stanford Financial Group of Companies.

A fifth-generation Texan who once resided in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, he holds dual citizenship, as a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda and of the United States.

He contributed millions of dollars to politicians in Antigua and the United States, amongst other countries.

On March 6, 2012, Stanford was convicted on all charges except a single count of wire fraud.

He is serving a 110-year sentence at United States Penitentiary, Coleman II in Coleman, Florida.

In September 2014, Stanford filed an appeal; it was rejected in October 2015.

Stanford grew up in Mexia, Texas.