8 theSun
news without borders
Stanford exec
charged with
obstructing justice
CHICAGO: A senior executive
at the Stanford Financial Group
was charged with obstruction of
justice on Tuesday for lying to
officials investigating an alleged
US$9.2 billion (RM32.3 billion)
fraud by cricket mogul and fin-
ancier Allen Stanford.
Stanford has not faced crimi-
nal charges in the alleged Ponzi
scheme, but his Houston-based
brokerage and offshore banks
have been placed in receivership
as the civil case brought by the
Securities and Exchange Com-
mission proceeds.
Chief investment officer Laura
Pendergest-Holt is the first Stan-
ford executive to face criminal
charges and was indicted on two
counts of obstruction.
The indictment alleges that
she conspired with two unnamed
executives and a company lawyer
to provide misleading informa-
tion about the value and content
of the bank’s assets to securities
investigators, the US Department
of Justice said.
It also accuses Pendergest-
Holt of lying to investigators
about what she knew about the
questionable assets.
The indictment further al-
leges that two days after her Feb
10 false testimony, “Penderg-
est-Holt caused US$4.3 million
(RM15 million) in (Stanford
International Bank Ltd) funds
to be wire-transferred to SIBL’s
operating account in Houston,”
the Justice Department said.
The case is the most high-
profile alleged fraud scheme
since the SEC charged Wall
Street financier Bernard Madoff
with carrying out a US$50 billion
(RM175 billion) Ponzi scheme
in December. Madoff pleaded
guilty to fraud and faces a prison
term of up to 150 years when
sentenced in June.
Stanford was behind the high-
profile Stanford Super Series
Twenty20 competition. On Feb
17, the SEC accused Stanford of
fraud in selling US$9.2 billion
(RM32.3 billion) in securities
by promising “improbable and
unsubstantiated” returns. – AFP
Payback begins in British
MPs’ expenses row
LONDON: A British cabinet
minister pledged on Tuesday to
repay thousands of pounds of
property tax in the latest fall-out
of an expenses row that Prime
Minister Gordon Brown said
must be met with “extreme” ac-
tion.
Fighting Communities Secretary Ha-
rages in zel Blears said she would pay
£13,332 (RM71,459) in tax that
Sri Lanka leaked expenses claims sug-
despite gested she should have already
calls for paid when she sold her London
flat in August 2004.
halt Her decision came after a fifth
pg 10 day of newspaper revelations
about MPs’ lavish claims on tax-
payers’ money prompted Brown
to take decisive action.
In a round of television inter-
views, the premier announced
an independent review of every
parliamentary expense claim
made over the past four years.
It was “extreme action but it
is necessary because politicians
must show themselves worthy of
public trust”, he said.
Earlier, David Cameron, the
leader of the main opposition
Conservatives, ordered his MPs
to pay back some of their expens-
es claimed after reports of their
lavish spending on swimming
pools, gardens and a moat.
Brown’s ministers were the
target of the first few days of
revelations, and Blears said on
Tuesday she had decided to act
in response to public “outrage”.
She had told parliamentary
authorities that her London flat
was a secondary residence re-
quired for her work in the capital,
a designation which allowed her
to claim costs for the property.
When she sold the flat she
should have paid capital gains
tax as is due on second homes.
However, her expenses claims
showed she did not, suggesting
the flat was simultaneously reg-
istered with the tax authorities as
her main home.
“I have decided it’s not enough
to comply with the rules and the
law. What matters is what people
think and feel about the issue,”
Blears said.
Cameron, who if opinion polls
are to be believed could be prime
minister within a year, earlier
said the behaviour of some of
his lawmakers was “unethical
and wrong” and repeatedly said
“sorry” for what had happened.
“When I read about the swim-
ming pools, the moats... I am
completely appalled, most of my
colleagues are appalled, people
want something done about
this,” he told a hastily-called
press conference.
Cameron said leading Con-
Bank chief tapped for
Indonesian vice-president
JAKARTA: Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is ex-
pected to name the central bank
governor as his running mate in
July presidential polls tomorrow, a
move backed by business leaders.
But the choice of Bank Indonesia
Governor Boediono has angered
Yudhoyono’scoalition partners
including Islamic parties, which
have said they will not accept a
“neoliberal” economist with per-
ceived links to the United States.
“The president ... has made his
decision based on Boediono’s pro-
fessionalism, integrity and loyalty,”
said Marzuki Ali, secretary-general
of Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party
yesterday.
“His ability in the economic
field is undoubted.”
Boediono, 66, was coordinat-
ing minister for the economy
before being appointed a year
ago to lead the central bank out
of a massive corruption scandal
that had tarnished its international
standing.
He has worked closely with
respected Finance Minister
Sri Mulyani Indrawati to steer
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy
through the US-led financial crisis,
| THURSDAY MAY 14 2009
servatives who claimed expenses
for gardening, furniture and even
tennis court maintenance would
pay back what they received,
and he promised to refund one
bill he himself had claimed.
His party would also set up a
new expenses scrutiny panel by
which lawmakers must abide “or
they will no longer be Conserva-
tive MPs,” Cameron said.
Meanwhile, the Daily Tel-
egraph newspaper, which has
been publishing the expenses
claims, revealed the first claims
details of lawmakers from the
smaller Liberal Democrats in
yesterday’s edition. Party leader
Nick Clegg had sought to head off
any embarrassment by pledging
action on Tuesday, but was forced
to apologise after it emerged he
claimed £80 (RM428) of interna-
tional phone calls. He will repay
the sum.
His predecessor, Menzies
Campbell, claimed £10,000
(RM53,600) for refurbishing
his London flat, while housing
spokesman Lembit Opik claimed
£40 (RM214) for a court sum-
mons he received for not paying
his council tax. He will refund it.
Although none of the lawmak-
ers caught up in the scandal have
broken the rules on parliamen-
tary expenses, their profligate
spending has provoked fury
in Britain, which is struggling
through its worst recession since
World War II.
A Populus poll for The Times
taken over the weekend revealed
the main political parties are suf-
fering from the scandal. Brown’s
governing Labour Party fell four
points on last month to 26%,
while the Conservatives were
also down four, to 39%. – AFP
with growth forecast at around
four percent this year and six
percent in 2010.
Indonesian Chamber of Com-
merce and Industry’s chairman
M.S Hidayat said the Australian
and US-educated technocrat
was a steady hand who could be
trusted to look after the economy
during the global downturn.
“It will bring positive sentiment
to our market as he is highly re-
spected for his professionalism
and his ability in leading Indone-
sia’s economy in the face of the
global financial crisis,” he said.
“If he is Yudhoyono’s vice-
president, he will be given great
power to monitor economic is-
sues in the cabinet. His number
one job will be to handle the global
financial crisis and the country’s
economic growth.”
Yudhoyono is seeking re-elec-
tion on July 8 for a second five-
year term on a platform of sound
economic management and clean
government.
Opinion polls put him well
ahead of his closest likely rival,
ex-president Megawati Sukar-
noputri of the Democratic Party
of Struggle. – AFP