HOUSTON-Sitting in the back of a courtroom where Texas tycoon R Allen Stanford is being tried for fraud, retired IBM engineer Jim Eccles was eager to see the man accused of bilking thousands of investors in a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme. Eccles, who lost his life savings, said he'd spent hours traveling on a bus for one reason. "I wanted to see the guy that stole my money," the 76-year-old Austin resident said yesterday, shortly before testimony resumed in the ongoing trial in Houston.
Three years have passed since Stanford's business empire was dismantled in the hope that his companies, bank accounts and lavish assets could pay back the more than 21,000 people that prosecutors said were victimised. Many lost their retirement savings or saw college tuition funds gutted. But so far, they've received nothing.
The recovery process has been complicated by conflicts in securing Stanford's assets, which are scattered across several countries, and a legal fight over whether some investors are entitled to a special fund that protects customers of failed brokerage firms. The delay has left investors feeling cheated and forgotten, with some worrying about being able to afford a doctor's visit or if they can get by on Social Security checks. Eccles was among about 40 investors in the courtroom Friday who came from as far away as Florida to highlight their frustration.
The investors- most of them elderly and retired-said they lost their life savings after buying certificates of deposit, or CDs, from Stanford's bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua. Stanford's trial began last month. Prosecutors allege the CDs were the centerpiece of Stanford's 20-year fraud scheme. Stanford promised investors their money was being safely invested in stocks, bonds and other securities, but investigators say the money was actually used to fund the flamboyant financier's businesses and extravagant lifestyle filled with yachts and private jets.
AP
