Ontario’s attorney general has secured its largest-ever civil forfeiture award for $17 million that was lost to the Stanford Bank Ponzi scheme.
The province’s attorney general, John Gerretsen, said Tuesday hat his office has obtained a court order to recover $17 million for victims of the investment fraud operated by the Stanford group of companies in the U.S., South America and the Caribbean. The money that is forfeited to Ontario will then transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice, which will distribute the funds to victims.
The AG’s office notes that, while the money was held in accounts at a major Canadian bank, the majority of the victims are in the U.S. and Latin America. The scheme resulted in $5.9 billion of investor losses worldwide, impacting an estimated 28,000 victims. The number of Canadian victims is not yet known, the AG’s office says.
Another $6 million remains under control of the court and is designated to be returned to victims who deposited money in accounts after the fraud was uncovered, it adds.
“In 2009, U.S. authorities referred this case to our Civil Remedies for Illicit Activities Office. I am proud that victims of this large-scale, international fraud are going to be compensated thanks to excellent cooperation between Ontario and the United States,” said Gerretsen in a release.
In 2012, the main perpetrator of the scheme, Allen Stanford, received a 110-year prison sentence after being convicted of the fraud in the U.S.
For more: See Investment Executive, SEC charges Caribbean regulator with fraud, June 21, 2009.