Stanford’s receiver wants contributions returned

Court-appointed receiver for Stanford's financial group asked political committees to return campaign contributions from the disgraced billionaire.

The court-appointed receiver for R Allen Stanford’s financial group asked national political committees Monday to return campaign contributions from the disgraced Texas billionaire.

Stanford,accused in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit of a “massive” fraud,was served with legal papers by FBI agents last week but has not been charged with any crime. The SEC said Stanford peddled sham promises and funneled investors’ money into real estate and other assets not easily turned into cash.

Letters were sent Monday to the Republican National Committee,National Republican Senatorial Committee,National Republican Congressional Committee,Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

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“I hereby request your committee return to the receivership estate all campaign contributions made by Mr. Stanford or the other defendants to your committee,” receiver Ralph S Janvey wrote. “By returning such amounts to the receivership estate,you will help reduce the losses suffered by victims of the alleged fraud.”

The letters included a list of dozens of senators and representatives and the individual contributions,ranging from $250 to $45,900. The committee contributions ranged from $133,345 to $965,000.

Spokesmen for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee said they hadn’t seen Janvey’s letter yet and had no immediate comment. Spokesmen for the other committees couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday night.

Last week the US District Court in Dallas appointed Janvey as the receiver to take control of the assets of Stanford’s businesses.

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As news of Stanford’s alleged scam surfaced last week,some US lawmakers quickly announced they would donate his campaign contributions to charity.

Janvey said that if the committees had already donated the contributions to a charity,they could donate the same amount to the Stanford Financial Group Receivership.

Thomas Ajamie,a Houston attorney representing some of Stanford’s customers seeking redress,said Monday night that Janvey’s attempt at recovering the contributions is “highly unusual.”

Ajamie said it’s unclear whether the committees or politicians would be legally required to return the funds and that Janvey’s move could be meant to “embarrass them into giving the money back.”

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Phillip Stern,an attorney at Neal Gerber Eisenberg in Chicago who has been a court-appointed receiver in several SEC proceedings,said receivers sometimes seek the return of charitable contributions under the theory that investors’ money was fraudulently transferred,though he likewise hadn’t seen that occur with political donations.

“I quite frankly think it’s totally reasonable” to seek the return of campaign donations under that legal theory,said Stern,who previously was an enforcement official at the SEC in Chicago and a federal prosecutor.