Summary
Texas billionaire and accused Ponzi scammer R. Allen Stanford is the focus of a new book written by a former Stanford executive. Sir Allen & Me: An Insider’s Look at R. Allen Stanford and the Island of Antigua peers into the private and business life of the flamboyant financier, whom the federal government claims operated a “massive” $8-billion confidence game from his bank in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
Author and journalist Robert Hoffman was hired by Stanford in the mid-1990s to start up the Antigua Sun newspaper. For two years, Hoffman was privy to the billionaire’s political maneuvering and manipulations, including Stanford’s efforts to rewrite the island’s banking laws to favor the Texas money man and to keep prying eyes from the highly questionable running of Stanford International Bank based in Antigua.
Hoffman also tells about Stanford’s forays into the world of cricket, his disastrous stab at establishing a regional airline, his lavish lifestyle and his shameful treatment of many of his loyal employees.
In the book, Hoffman quotes from Stanford describing more or less exactly what his methods were to lure investors into believing his Antigua operations were legitimate by creating what Hoffman calls Stanford’s “financial Potemkin Village” on the island.
About the Author
Robert Hoffman has been a free-lance journalist, travel writer, broadcaster and author for more than 40 years. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Travel & Leisure and many other publications. He is the former editor of the Antigua Sun, the St. Croix Avis and Eastern Caribbean correspondent for the Associated Press. He has written books on Alexander Hamilton and the culture and history of St. Croix, where he lives.
