Business

DRUG MONEY MAY PLAY PART IN BILLIONAIRE CASE

In addition to his other apparent indiscretions, Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford may also have been addicted to laundering drug money.

Federal authorities have been investigating whether Stanford was laundering drug money for a notorious Mexican drug-trafficking ring.

According to an ABC News report, authorities found checks inside of one of Stanford’s jets that are believed to be connected to the Gulf Cartel, known to be one of Mexico’s most violent drug gangs. The plane was detained by Mexican authorities as part of a probe that’s been underway since last year.

Authorities say Stanford could face criminal charges of money laundering and bribery of foreign officials, which might explain why the feds have yet to press charges.

It’s not the first time Stanford has been caught up with Mexican drug money. In 1999, the cricket aficionado was applauded publicly for handing over to US officials more than $3 million in drug money that had found its way to his Antigua-based bank.

The money was part of the cocaine fortune amassed on American soil by late Mexican drug baron Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who died in 1997, according to documents filed back then in federal court in Miami. The funds were brought to Stanford’s bank by Mexican “businessmen” Juan Alberto Zepeda and Jorge Fernando Bastida through Stanford’s Houston-based financial consultants.