Switzerland announced Monday the return of the remaining $ 150 million in funds seized in one of the most spectacular fraud cases in the United States, an amount that will be used to compensate the victims of Texan con artist Robert Allen Stanford.
Read also: Stanford convicted of fraud
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Restitution is possible following the entry into force of the conviction of the American businessman Allen Stanford for fraud in the United States
", explains the Swiss Federal Ministry of Justice (OFJ) in a press release.
"
By the end of December 2020, the OFJ will return to the American authorities the remaining 150 million dollars in favor of the injured parties, the first installments having already been paid previously
", all remedies having been exhausted.
Between 2001 and 2008, the American businessman Allen Stanford defrauded thousands of investors thanks to the pyramid scheme he had set up, for a total amount of more than seven billion dollars.
He was sentenced in 2012 in the United States to 110 years in prison.
The procedure in Switzerland was opened in 2009, because the Swiss authorities believed that part of the funds extorted from the United States could be found in Switzerland.
A criminal investigation was opened in February 2009 against the Texan, two American accomplices and Swiss society.
Within the framework of mutual legal assistance, Switzerland had provided the American authorities with bank documents and minutes of hearing of bank employees for the procedure in the United States.
Allen Stanford was found guilty of deceiving some 30,000 investors from more than 100 countries by selling them fictitious financial products with exceptional returns.
Read also: Stanford can not pay his defense
The system used consisted in remunerating the first investors by deposits from subsequent investors, without real creation of value.
Stanford had been nicknamed the "
little Madoff
", in reference to Bernard Madoff, another and famous American crook sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 for having pumped more than 65 billion dollars according to the same principle of the pyramid or Ponzi scheme .
