A range of federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, IRS and banking regulators, have been investigating allegations of fraud and possibly other illegal activity at R. Allen Stanford's companies for at least two years, according to people familiar with the matter.
The SEC this week filed a civil complaint against Stanford alleging that he and two of his associates committed a $9.2 billion financial fraud. The Department of Justice is considering filing criminal charges against him, either for fraud or other charges, a person familiar with the matter said.
Operating through a network of companies bearing his name and based in Houston and the Caribbean island of Antigua, Stanford is accused of misleading customers about how their money was being invested and other misdeeds.
The SEC's investigation, dating back at least three years, faced challenges because customers' assets were held in accounts in Antigua. Antiguan authorities did not fully cooperate with the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of an ongoing investigation.
The SEC brought in the help of the FBI, which has enforcement tools unavailable to the SEC including the ability to wiretap and send in agents undercover, according to people familiar with the matter. It wasn't clear how those tools were used in the Stanford investigation.
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