Corporate Crime Wave Continues

clipped from rawstory.com The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday accused Texas magnate and world cricket promoter Robert Allen Stanford of massive fraud in connection with the sale of securities worth eight billion dollars. A US district judge also moved to freeze the assets of Stanford, a top promoter of the sport of cricket. The SEC charged Stanford and three of his companies for "orchestrating a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme centering on an eight billion CD (certificate of deposit) program, a statement from the commission said. The SEC said that US District Judge Reed O'Connor had entered a temporary restraining order, froze Stanford's assets, and appointed a receiver to marshal those assets.

Long story short, there is no eight billion. Stanford's books don't balance.

It's time to get absolutely Calvinist with the financial industry -- assume they're all evil and make them prove they aren't. While we're at it, we need to get some real hardasses at the SEC. With Gitmo shutting down, maybe we should move the waterboards to Wall St.

They are, after all, not torture in any way and totally legal.