SEC Fails on Stanford

Bernard Madoff’s would-be regulators weren’t the only ones sleeping on the job: The Financial Times reports “a whistleblower contacted US regulators more than five years ago with allegations that Sir Allen Stanford’s businesses were involved in an ‘illegal Ponzi scheme.’” Leyla Basagoitia offered a nine-point of Stanford’s company to the industry’s self-regulatory body in 2003 and also alerted the SEC. The FBI, meanwhile, arrested Stanford’s chief investment officer, Laura Pendergest-Holt, yesterday and charged her with obstruction of justice.