Investors Sue Insurance Company That Vouched for Stanford Ponzi Scam

By John Pacenti All Articles

Daily Business Review

July 12, 2013


The letters circulated by Stanford International Bank among would-be investors claimed deposits were insured by Lloyds of London and that the bank's employees were "first class business people."

The letters proclaimed the bank had undergone "stringent risk management review by an outside audit firm."

Stanford International Bank is now known as one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes, a $7 billion scam that is second only to the con pulled off by the former New York investment adviser and financier Bernard Madoff. The Stanford bank, which was based in Antigua and maintained a sizable footprint in Miami, went under in 2009.

So while the bank's founder and one-time billionaire, R. Allen Stanford, is serving a 110-year prison sentence for fraud, investors are looking for deep pockets to make them whole.

They hope they found it in Willis Group Holdings, the U.K.-based insurance company that provided Stanford with written endorsements. The investors are also suing Willis Group's American subsidiary based in Colorado.

Getting the litigation to stick in one jurisdiction, though, hasn't been easy. Filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in February, the plaintiffs' suit was transferred to U.S. District Court in Miami on June 3.

U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez stayed the case on June 14 after the Willis Group argued the U.S. Supreme Court is looking at the liability of insurance letters to investors in a related case against Willis Group.

Other lawsuits against Willis Group by similarly situated plaintiffs have ended up in multidistrict litigation in Dallas. One has also been stayed by a Miami federal judge.

A telephone call placed to attorney Edward Soto, a partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges in Miami who represents Willis Group, was not returned by deadline.

But in his motion to Martinez for a stay, Soto said the defendant expects the case and four others filed against Willis Group to be transferred to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas that oversees the estate of Stanford International Bank.

The plaintiffs attorney, Ervin Gonzalez, said businesses that vouch for criminal enterprises like Stanford need to be held accountable.

"If someone is going to give an endorsement ... they'd better be careful because people rely on those endorsements," said Gonzalez, a partner at Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables, Fla. "They have an obligation and a duty to be accurate."

Also representing the plaintiffs is attorney Luis Delgado, a partner at Miami's Homer & Bonner.

"From in or around August 2004 through 2008, Willis provided 'safety and soundness' letters to Stanford Financial's agents on Willis letterhead and signed by a Willis executive," the lawsuit claims.

The letters misled clients into believing their deposits were safe and insured, the lawsuit states.

The 29 plaintiffs are from Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela and had a combined loss of $30 million when SIB collapsed. The lawsuit states they received identical Willis Group letters with the only difference being the date and address.

Read more: http://sivg.org/forum/view_topic.php?t=eng&id=86

For a full and open debate on the Stanford Receivership visit the Stanford International Victims Group - SIVG official forum http://sivg.org/forum/

$83.5M Suit Says Willis Group Aided Stanford Fraud

A group of holders of Stanford Financial Group CD accounts claims that Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Co. helped perpetuate Robert Allen Stanford's $7 billion Ponzi scheme, according to an $83.5 million class action removed from Florida state court Monday.

The plaintiffs, 64 citizens of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States and Spain who claim combined losses of more than $83.5 million, say that when they made their investments in Stanford Financial CDs, they relied on "safety and soundness" letters issued by Willis asserting that Stanford International Bank and its products were protected by certain insurance policies and were highly liquid.

"In fact, the Stanford Financial CDs were not CDs at all, but unregistered, unregulated securities sold illegally from Stanford Financial's home base in the United States," the plaintiffs say in their complaint. "These investments had no insurance and were fraught with risk."

The case is not the first to lay such accusations against Willis. In 2009, a class of between 1,200 and 5,000 Venezuelan clients sought $1.6 billion over claims they were allegedly lured into the scheme by the insurance brokers' assurance that Stanford CDs were sound, insured investments. And in another suit that year, Mexican investors implicated Willis, claiming the defendants contributed to a fraud that cost them roughly $1 billion.

Stanford was sentenced in June 2012 to 110 years in prison after being convicted on charges he misappropriated billions of dollars in investor funds, including some $1.6 billion he allegedly moved to a personal account. His $7 billion Ponzi scheme was second only to Bernie Madoff's record-setting scam.

From about August 2004 through 2008, Willis provided Stanford Financial with an undated form letter that said Willis was the insurance broker for Stanford International Bank and had placed directors and officers liability insurance and a bankers blanket bond with Lloyds of London, according to the current complaint.

The letters played a crucial role in Stanford's fraud because Stanford Finanical was an offshore bank and thus not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Willis' letters helped Stanford get around that obstacle by claiming the CDs "were even safer than U.S. Bank-issued CDs because of the unique insurance policies Willis had obtained," the complaint says.

"The Willis letters were specifically designed to win investors' trust and confidence in Stanford Financial's fraudulent scheme," the plaintiffs say in their complaint, noting that for investors with more than $1 million in their accounts, Stanford Financial advisors could get personally addressed letters from Willis.

"Willis' message to potential investors was this: Trust us, you can invest with confidence and security in Stanford Financial CDs," they add.

All of the plaintiffs in the current case made their purchases through Stanford Financial's Miami office, which the complaint says accounted for more than $1 billion in CD sales.

Willis of Colorado Inc. filed the notice of removal of the class action on the grounds of diversity between plaintiffs and defendants, of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 and that the Northern District of Texas has exclusive jurisdiction in Stanford receivership cases.

The notice of removal also claims that defendants Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Co. and Willis Ltd., which are based in Ireland and the United Kingdom, respectively, have been fraudulently joined in an effort to defeat diversity jurisdiction. It says that the plaintiffs' claims are on letters issued only by the subsidiary Willis of Colorado and "no reasonable possibility" exists of the plaintiffs recovering damages from the other entities.

Counsel for both sides could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

The plaintiffs are represented by Luis Delgado and Christopher King of Homer & Bonner PA and Ervin Gonzalez of Colson Hicks Eidson PA.

Willis is represented by Edward Soto of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.

The case is Nuila de Gadala-Maria et al. v. Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Co., case number 1:13-cv-21989, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Read the Willis Group NOTICE OF REMOVAL.

Read the Willis Group Exhibit A.

Read more: http://sivg.org/article/2013_64_victims_Say_Willis_Group_Aided_Stanford_Fraud.html

For a full and open debate on the Stanford Receivership visit the Stanford International Victims Group - SIVG official forum http://sivg.org/forum/