Before he was rounded up and sent to jail for allegedly bilking people out of billions, Allen Stanford was quite the jetsetter. A 2006 cable relating table conversation at a highbrow event in Barbados gives a little insight into Stanford's narcissism, and the Ambassador's ambivalence about their chat. There's something almost Alice-in-Wonderland-like about the whole thing.

Grandiose schemes:

In response to the Ambassador’s question about his business ventures, he discussed his plans to develop a number of homes in the US$10-20 million range and a world class golf course on a small island off the coast of Antigua.

[...]

Stanford’s second big venture in the Caribbean is investment in new airplanes for his Caribbean Star airline. (Note: The recent Federal Aviation Administration Category One rating for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States means Antigua-based Caribbean Star can begin flights to the U.S. See Ref A for more details. End Note). He expects to be running about 400 flights a week throughout the Caribbean, including to San Juan and Caracas, but it is unclear when this expansion will occur.

Keeping a distance:

Embassy officers do not reach out to Stanford because of the allegations of bribery and money laundering. The Ambassador managed to stay out of any one-on-one photos with Stanford during the breakfast. For his part, Stanford said he preferred to conduct his business without contacting the Embassy, resolving any investment disputes directly with local governments. It is whispered in the region that Stanford facilitates resolution with significant cash contributions.

Of course, as we now know, Stanford did far more than bribe foreign officials. Bloomberg reported on his illicit activities in 2009, including this interesting little nugget:

In 1999, Stanford Financial tried to take over Antiguan International Business Corp., which regulated offshore companies on the island, said Jonathan Winer, then a deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state.

State Department cables sent from the U.S. Embassy and provided to Bloomberg described a “power grab” and criticized the Stanford’s company’s hiring of U.S. consultants to revise Antigua’s offshore-banking rules.

I'll bet you $100 those "U.S. consultants" were on the US Chamber of Commerce referral lists.

As is often the case with the high-fliers after they're shot down, Mr. Stanford's attorney claims he is suffering from an unspecified psychiatric disorder, is medicated, and unfit to stand trial. A government psychiatrist will be examining him before the judge makes a ruling. His trial is scheduled to begin in January, 2011.

Even if he is a psychopath, they should simply reduce the meds and make him stand trial. My guess is that he can rattle too many skeletons in others' closets for them to allow such a thing.

On Wednesday, federal authorities reported they did not know the whereabouts of Texas banker and scammer Allen Stanford. But what we do know for certain about the financier whose frauds may yet rival the $50 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme is that he donated generously to both political parties in Washington. Of course, that would be news to viewers of CBS Evening News. Because while Stanford gave early and often to Texas Republicans John Cornyn, Tom Delay and George W. Bush, CBS portrayed the fleeing financier as a bagman for Democrats alone.

During a segment on the February 17th broadcast of the CBS Evening News, correspondent Bob Orr suggested Stanford' was a Democrats-only influence peddler (video here):

Just three months before, he hob-knobbed with top Democrats in Denver as the lead sponsor of the National Democratic Institute conference.

[Clip of Bill Clinton] "I'd like to thank the Stanford Financial Group."

Since 2000, Stanford has funneled $1.7 million to politicians, $4,600 last year to President Obama's campaign.

But as Public Citizen, Huffington Post, ABC News and Talking Points Memo all reported, Stanford and his Stanford Financial Group PAC contributed to politicians and political action committees of both parties (including $448,000 in soft money contributions from 2000 to 2001 alone) to advance his agenda of banking and money-laundering deregulation. Many others journeyed on Stanford's junkets to Antigua and elsewhere, prompting TPM to brand his company "a travel agent for Congress." (TPM has a slide show of one of those of Stanford getaways.)

As it turns out, the list of Stanford beneficiaries is long - and bipartisan.

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