An unbelievable $8 billion in financial fraud was enabled by the fact that Washington politicians, in exchange for feeding at Robert Allen Stanford’s campaign money trough, acceded to the money manager’s wishes and didn’t pass a 2002 bill that would have made preventing and discovering fraud of exactly his kind much, much easier. Hey, here’s a thought! Maybe when a guy spends millions of dollars urging you and your colleagues not to pass stricter controls on fraud, you should pause and consider his motivations! He’s probably into something he’s not supposed to be into!
This is infuriating. The lawmakers who took money from Allen should have to write personal checks to the people he defrauded. They bear responsibility for this.
(Serious kudos to OpenSecrets for uncovering this connection.)