Allen Standford`s Bank of Antigua is now the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Financial Company Ltd.
The bank, which last week saw huge lines of Antiguans seeking to withdraw their funds following civil charges against the Texas billionaire, has been seized by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank along with the Antigua Commercial Bank Ltd, the St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd, the Eastern Caribbean Financial Holdings Company Ltd, the National Commercial Bank (SVG) Ltd, the National Bank of Dominica Ltd and the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have come together as an entity to carry on its operations as of Monday, February 23.
This means that Stanford’s ownership of the bank, which he has controlled since 1990, officially ends.
Antigua and Barbuda’s government will be the largest shareholder, with 25 percent, K. Dwight Venner, president of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, said at a press conference in St. John’s Monday.
The five regional banks will each have a 15 percent stake, Venner said, adding that the central bank had the right to seize the institution under emergency powers granted it by a 1983 law.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Stanford on Feb. 17th with running an $8 billion fraud involving sales of certificates of deposit from Stanford International Bank Ltd., his offshore lender, which is also based in Antigua.
Source: caribworldnews.com
