HOUSTON — Three years after the feds shut down Allen Stanford’s alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme, the victims still haven’t received a penny back on their losses.
To mark the troublesome anniversary, some two dozen of Stanford’s victims gathered outside the federal courthouse here, yesterday to tell their stories and to get a look at the man they say stole their money.
“I wanted to see the guy who stole my money,” said one of the protestors, Jim Eccles, 76, a retired IBM engineer.
Eccles, who traveled hours by bus to be here, said he lost his life savings to Stanford’s evil plan.
There are 21,000 victims of the massive scam.
A dozen or so were crammed into the courtroom, watching as defense lawyers led witnesses through testimony about how Stanford was not at fault for the collapse of his financial empire.
Outside the courtroom, however, none of the former Stanford investors were buying that version of events.
Angela Shaw, head of the Stanford Victims Coalition and the organizer of yesterday’s rally, said the group had originally wanted to wear buttons with “3” and “$0” on them — representing the three years they have waited since the crime unraveled and zero money returned to them.
The judge, however, said the buttons would be too disruptive.
The prosecution then called Shaw, whose own family lost some $2 million, to ask that she keep any assembly low-key in order to not give the defense grounds for a mistrial.
One former Stanford client still got his message across, however, by writing “3” and “$0” on his palms, and flashing them at passersby.
According to Shaw, her victims’ coalition has 4,000 registered members in 48 states.
Stanford is charged with running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of some $7 billion through the sale of bogus CDs through his Antigua bank.
The defense is in the third day of its case, which is expected to run for another two weeks.
Whether Stanford himself will take the stand remains uncertain.