Leslie Turk

Tiffany Angelle named in Stanford receiver's suit

by Leslie Turk

(Editor's Note: Through her attorney Alan Breaud, former Stanford Group Co. financial advisor Tiffany Angelle says the story below includes untrue information. “She is quite upset about the article and the damage to her reputation,” Breaud writes in an e-mail. “She has never given a Rolex or any other gift to get someone to invest.” In a phone interview, Breaud also said Angelle didn’t take any investors on trips to keep them from withdrawing money. The Independent Weekly has attempted several times to reach Angelle by phone [at the address listed in the lawsuit], but no one answers and there is no machine set to accept messages.)

When a Lafayette investor was threatening to pull his money out of Stanford Group Co., local financial adviser Tiffany Angelle set about to change his mind, flying the investor to the West Indies Island of Antigua, where parent company Stanford International Bank is headquartered. He was lavishly entertained and presented an expensive gift: a Rolex watch.
 
Such extravagancies (anyone ever go to a Stanford-sponsored LSU tailgating party?) appear to have been a common tactic for a company the SEC alleges was operating a Ponzi scheme that has cost victims more than $9 billion, most of which was sent to Antigua. Now more of those alleged victims are seeking to recover $6.5 million from 10 investment advisers in Louisiana, The Advocate reported yesterday. Seven of those advisers are in Baton Rouge, and three others are in Denham Springs, Zachary and Lafayette. Angelle and Hank Mills of Baton Rouge, who also worked in the Lafayette office in River Ranch, are among them. A lawsuit was filed in Baton Rouge last month by 10 investors; this suit, filed Wednesday in district court in Texas, is the first to name Angelle, who worked out of the Lafayette office.
 
According to The Advocate, 66 financial advisers in Louisiana and seven other states were sued for more than $40 million by a court-appointed receiver attempting to recover billions from R. Allen Stanford’s companies. The suit was filed on the heels of the receiver's request that the court release accounts held by Stanford Trust Co., which is based in Louisiana.

“These amounts were paid to the financial advisers as compensation for soliciting their clients to purchase certificates of deposit from Stanford Group Company’s affiliate, Stanford International Bank, Ltd.,” Dallas-based receiver Ralph S. Janvey said in a written statement.... In return for placing investors’ money with the offshore bank, Janvey alleged, advisers often received a 1 percent commission. He said an adviser could earn an additional 1 percent commission if the money remained with Stanford for the term of the deposit. “Significant portions of the bank’s portfolio were misappropriated by … Allen Stanford and used by him to acquire private equity investments and real estate,” Janvey alleged.

Investors are seeking $1.4 million from Mills, and $675,664 from Angelle, whose address in the suit is listed as the 400 block of Boulder Creek Parkway in Lafayette. The INDsider was unable to reach Angelle by phone at that address. Read the rest of The Advocate story here.