Reply #7: There's also a Jack Abramoff/Greenberg Traurig connection

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I used to joke a few years back that no scandal was complete without a Jack Abramoff connection -- and sure enough, it turns out that Greenberg Traurig represented Stanford back in 2001 -- and also that Stanford donated heavily to Abramoff's pals Tom DeLay and Bob Ney:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a.0EEBl4oTSA&refer=us

May 17, 2006

The U.S. advised financial institutions to be suspicious of transactions with Antigua banks, a warning that was lifted in August 2001 after Antigua took steps to fight money laundering. The warning didn't specifically mention Stanford Financial's bank. Stanford Financial says Allen Stanford "was asked to serve in an advisory capacity to the government of Antigua and Barbuda" and hired a "top-notch team of former U.S. legal and regulatory professionals" that helped that country adopt anti- money-laundering rules. That team included several lawyers from the Miami offices of Greenberg Traurig LLP, which represented Stanford Financial at the time.

Since then, Stanford Financial's U.S. business has surged, helped by a team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that sells the Antiguan CDs to affluent Americans such as doctors. The company says the team added about $17 million in new deposits in 2003, $150 million in 2004 and had a goal of $250 million for last year, according to a 2004 company video.

In Washington, meanwhile, the company gained additional cachet last year by acquiring Charles Schwab & Co.'s Washington research team, now called Stanford Washington Research Group. The group employs former Federal Reserve Governor Lyle Gramley as senior economic adviser. In the past six years, Stanford Financial and its employees have made more than $2 million in donations to U.S. political candidates and parties, according to the Federal Election Commission and congressional and Internal Revenue Service records.

Stanford gives to both Democrats and Republicans. Among its top beneficiaries have been former Senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who left office in 2003 amid ethics allegations, and Republican Representatives Tom DeLay of Texas, who is resigning from Congress next month after having been indicted in a Texas election-fundraising case, and Bob Ney of Ohio, who's under investigation in the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Stanford Financial or its employees have contributed to the legal defense funds of the three lawmakers.