The INDsider -> Leslie Turk THU, JUN 25 2:24AM by Leslie Turk

Lafayette Stanford victims coming forward

While many Lafayette area Stanford victims have yet to seek legal action to recover their losses, Acadiana Business has confirmed that at least a dozen have turned to Baton Rouge attorney Ed Gonzales to represent them.

“It should be obvious to all concerned that the investors as a whole were defrauded,” says Gonzales, declining to elaborate on the type of investigation he is conducting on his clients’ behalf. “I have been retained by a group of Louisiana and Texas investors to help them evaluate the accumulated evidence of fraud concerning Stanford International Bank, and to assist in the recovery of their losses,” he adds. “It is my clients’ intention that this effort benefit all of the people who have been affected by this scheme.”

Sources familiar with the group seeking legal advice from Gonzales, a former federal prosecutor in the Middle District of Louisiana for more than a decade, say potential individual losses to local investors may be as high as $28 million. The former prosecutor would not confirm that figure and could not yet give a clear indication of when the suit would be filed.

Read more about the Louisiana attorney general's criminal inquiry into the Stanford debacle and the local impact of the alleged scam in this month's Turk File in Acadiana Business, a sister publication of The Independent Weekly.

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written by citizen kane , June 25, 2009 - 09:00 pm

aww my heart just bleeds for those poor poor rich folks.

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written by Judy J , June 26, 2009 - 05:57 am

Stop calling these Stanford greedheads victims. Sure they got taken in by a con-man, but no con works unless the mark is greedy enough to believe the "too-good-to-be-true" offer dangled in front of them. Come up with a name that better describes their problems. Quit using the term victims. Katrina didn't wipe them out and mobsters haven't whacked them.

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written by Victim , June 26, 2009 - 03:38 pm

I am not greedy, nor rich. I've worked hard since I was 18, put myself through college and graduate school, raised a family, worked two jobs at times to make ends meet and recently survived cancer. I don't live in a mansion and drive a pre-owned, $12,000 vehicle. My IRA managing agent suggested moving my funds from the stock market to CDs at a fixed rate, which was better than the current local bank rates, but "not" unrealistic. I did my research and Standford International Bank had a good reputation and looked solid.
I didn't have a fortune in there, it was under $100,000.00, but it was enough to dream of retiring one day. I am 60 years old and now have only nightmares.

To: Citizen Kane and Judy J.
Your comments are mean-spirited and uninformed.

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written by Eric W , June 26, 2009 - 10:34 pm

Judy J. ur arrogance is really not appreciated here.
I have worked for the last 20 years and started with nothing putting myself though university just to come out into a world of recession in the early 90's. Stanford Bank never offered me any outrageously high rates. The most I ever got was about 6% a few years back durring the better times. Most recently I was getting 4%. I was simply getting a point or two more than the going rate in the USA. I don't even live in the USA and do so in the Caribbean where interest rates are a bit higher anyways.

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