People either love or hate 'Sir Allen' Stanford
— -- Allen Stanford, the highflying Texas billionaire with a Caribbean knighthood and a penchant for publicity and cricket, has been brought down to earth with a thud by U.S. fraud charges against him and his companies.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Stanford and two fellow executives fraudulently sold $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit.
Only months ago, Stanford, known as "Sir Allen" in Antigua, whose authorities knighted him in 2006, was providing fodder for the British tabloids by flying in by helicopter to bankroll international cricket matches in a blaze of publicity.
Now the 58-year-old is out of sight, as his harassed staff in plush company offices from Memphis to Atlanta fend off queries from panicked investors and probing journalists.
Once described as "haughty, arrogant and obnoxious" by Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Stanford, America's 205th-richest man according to Forbes magazine, has often walked a fine line between critics and admirers in a business and sporting empire that reaches well beyond Texas to Europe and across the Caribbean.
Following news reports last week that Stanford was under investigation, Spencer said he feared the Stanford scandal would hurt the image of the tiny Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda, which has undergone scrutiny in the past for alleged money laundering by Ukrainian and Russian Mafia bankers.
But many local islanders expressed support for the country's biggest investor.
"He is the best investor to come into the Caribbean, not only Antigua, but the region," said islander Julian Exeter. "He puts food in the mouth of everyone in Antigua and money in their pocket."
Friends say the financier is as genial as he is thick-skinned.
"Allen enjoys life and is the kind of person that doesn't worry about what other people think," said David LeBoeuf, a Texan who went to school with Stanford. "Larger than life is one way to describe him, but he's also an extremely talented, unique and hard-working individual," he said.
