Tragic

Stanford's Caribbean Kingdom

Antigua was known to some as "Stanford Land."

Talk about a big fish in a little pond: “Sir Allen” was so omnipresent on the Caribbean island of Antigua that it was known to some as “Stanford Land.” At various points in time, Allen, whose first business was a chain of body-building gyms in Texas, has owned an Antiguan airline, newspaper, residential complex, restaurants, the national cricket stadium, and—his crown jewel—the Stanford International Bank, which attracted billions of dollars of investment, particularly from Latin America. He had a cozy relationship with Antiguan officials, where he loaned the government money to give his business contracts and he sat on a banking regulatory authority. The Antiguan government even knighted him in 2006. On Friday, Antiguan officials took over Stanford's bank.