Houston, Texas - The probe into an alleged multibillion dollar fraud by Texas financier Allen Stanford deepened Thursday as governments took action against the cricket impresario's overseas banks and panicked investors tried desperately to withdraw their funds.
Two days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Stanford (58) of perpetrating "a fraud of shocking magnitude," officials were still in the dark about his whereabouts - as were close members of his family.
US officials have not yet charged Stanford with a crime, although the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it is "in contact" with securities regulators about the alleged $9.2bn fraud.
While federal agents were involved in the seizure of his US offices, they are not currently trying to locate the elusive billionaire.
"We would need to have an arrest warrant to track him down and no such warrant exists at this time and no agency has made a request to have us go looking for him," Steve Blando, a spokesman for the US Marshals Service told AFP.
A US judge has frozen Stanford's assets and investigators are working to sort out who the money belongs to.
"His presence is not necessary in order to proceed with the civil case," said Securities and Exchange Commission spokesperson John Nester.
Stanford's 81-year-old father James told the Houston Chronicle he had no idea where his son could be but said he did not believe "my son would run".
"I'd spoken to him a week or so ago - he'd called - about problems with the business climate in general, but nothing of this magnitude," he said.
"I cannot imagine, I cannot believe, I will not believe what is being alleged actually happened."
In the Caribbean and Latin America, authorities sought to quell fears among depositors who formed long queues outside local branches.
Five Latin American countries have already taken action against companies owned by Stanford whose wealth management and financial services group stretched across the world but was particularly successful in Latin America and the Caribbean, where it lured investors with promises of big returns that never materialised.
Nervous clients
Stanford Investment Bank claims to serve 30 000 clients in more than 130 countries while the umbrella Stanford Financial Group has more than $50bn "under advisement," according to the SEC complaint.
Faced with a run on a local subsidiary by panicked Venezuelans, Caracas "made a decision to intervene and to immediately sell" financial companies owned by Stanford, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said on Thursday.
Stanford Bank Venezuela, which has 15 branches in the country, already has received offers from interested parties, he said.
Peru's securities regulator on Thursday suspended operations for 30 days at the local office of Stanford Financial Group, promising it was working to secure investors' funds.
In Panama, banking authorities took over "administrative control" of a local Stanford branch after nervous clients made massive withdrawals of deposits on Wednesday.
Ecuador suspended a Stanford affiliate from operating in the Quito stock exchange for 30 days or until the company resolves the claims.
The Stanford affiliate in Colombia agreed on Wednesday to suspend its activities on the Bogota stock exchange. Banking authorities said they had taken steps to "protect customers and investors in the entity and to preserve confidence in the stock market".
On the tax haven island of Antigua, hundreds of people queued up Wednesday at the Stanford-owned Bank of Antigua to withdraw funds despite authorities' assurances their accounts were not in danger.
For the past two decades, Stanford has been based in the Caribbean, where he built a reputation as a cricket patron.
Stanford allegedly ran the most high-profile fraud since Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff was charged in a $50bn Ponzi scheme in December.
The scandal has caused huge embarrassment in English cricket with the bosses of the national association facing calls to resign after they signed a now unraveling deal with Stanford to stage matches in Antigua and England.
- AFP