The IRS' investigation of the collapse of Allen Stanford's financial empire reveals that potential losses, last year estimated at about $7.2 billion by court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey, may be higher than previously thought.
The IRS' investigation of the collapse of Allen Stanford's financial empire reveals that potential losses, last year estimated at about $7.2 billion by court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey, may be higher than previously thought. And a former federal prosecutor representing more than a dozen investors, many from the Lafayette area, told The Advocate this weekend that this could certainly be the case. Ed Gonzales, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Louisiana's Middle District for more than a decade, explained that the difference could be related to variations between on-the-book and off-the-book transactions.
"Why would Allen Stanford do that?" Gonzales mused in reference to a possible second set of books. "There are all sorts of reasons if you're a crook.
"The brokers who sold this stuff may have had a more accurate knowledge of how much money was being taken in," than Janvey, Gonzales said. "They may have been doing more business than Janvey has seen.
"The inference is that more people have been hurt more badly than has been talked about."
Read The Advocate story here.