Investors blame US regulators for alleged Ponzi scheme

United States regulators failed to act on reports that Texas financier Sir Allen Stanford was operating an alleged multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, a US Senate Banking Committee has been told, according to a report on www.cananews.net.



Investors appearing before the Committee yesterday said that they had provided information to the US regulators about the alleged US$7 billion Ponzi scheme by Sir Allen that involved his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB).



\"These agencies, along with Stanford, have robbed me of my American dream,\" said 55-year-old Craig Nelson.



\"I feel the US government is responsible for my loss,\" he added.



Leyla Wydler, an ex-Stanford Group financial adviser, said that regulators at the National Association of Securities Dealers ignored her when she alleged in 2003 that the financier was conducting a Ponzi scheme.



Wydler who made a similar charge to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which charged Stanford of engaging in the \"massive\" Ponzi scheme in February said she was fired in 2002 because she declined to offer the \"high yield\" certificates of deposit (CDs) to clients.



Many of the investors said the SEC, the US financial regulatory agency, was also too slow in responding to allegations levelled against Sir Allen.



Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver for Stanford\'s assets, was not present at the hearing, but said in a letter that his testimony would impair the criminal case against Sir Allen.