
Sen. Nelson said late Tuesday that he would return money received by Stanford. "I will give to charity any campaign contributions from him or his employees," Nelson said through his spokesman.
A McCain spokesperson said Wednesday that all contributions from Stanford would be donated. "The McCain Campaign is donating all contributions from R. Allen Stanford, and from individuals associated with Stanford Financial, to charity." This spokesperson said they will donate contributions made to both McCain's Presidential and Senate campaigns, but did not have a dollar amount.
Stanford himself did not contribute to the McCain Presidential campaign. He gave the maximum $4,600 contribution to President Obama's campaign. Indeed, Obama returned $2,300 that was contributed over the limit to Stanford.
Some say the investigation into Stanford should include an examination of his relationships with members of Congress.
"Surely there has to be a part of the investigation to look at what was done in Congress and whether the money that was spent to lobby and make political contributions played any role in all of this," said Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Once again, this could be another case of the SEC asleep at the switch. Allegations of fraud and possible drug money laundering have been made against Stanford in the past ten years, but the SEC took action only after two former employees filed a lawsuit in civil court.