Hundreds of Colombian clients of a Stanford Group unit voted on
Wednesday to transfer their investments to other brokerages just a week
after U.S. authorities charged the founder of the vast financial
network with an $8 billion fraud.
Clutching folders and agendas, college professors, lawyers and
pensioners packed into a hall where financial sector representatives
explained options for cash invested by the local brokerage unit of the
Stanford Group.
The unit is Stanford S.A. Comisionista de Bolsa.
Colombian clients transferred around $30 million from Stanford in
the initial days after U.S. authorities charged Texas billionaire Allen Stanford with carrying out a “massive fraud” that rattled investors from Latin America to Europe.
More than 500 clients voted on Wednesday in a ballot to move
investments from the Stanford unit, which held another roughly $30
million in three investment funds. After Stanford’s funds were frozen,
participants had to vote as a group.
“We’re calmer now,” said Jose Porto, a retired book editor after
voting at the Bogota university hall. “It’s only half resolved really,
let’s wait to see what happens with the transfer of the funds.”
In Colombia, Stanford ran a brokerage managing in local peso assets
and a separate Stanford Trust office, which acted only as a legal
representative of the group’s international operations. (Reuters)