Congressman was ‘determined’ to get indicted Guyanese to meet Allen Stanford, newspaper says
By CMC -
Sunday, September 18th, 2011.
Source - Antigua Observer
NEW YORK, CMC – The tabloid New York Post newspaper said on Sunday that a prominent United States congressman with ties to the disgraced Texan financier Allen Stanford was determined to get indicted Guyanese businessman Edul “Ed” Ahmad invited to one of Stanford’s cricket matched in Antigua so that Ahmad could meet him.
In a lengthy exposé, the Post said on Sunday that Queens Congressman Greg Meeks made the request in a February 19, 2008, e-mail, addressed to Yolanda Suarez, chief counsel for the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
The paper said that the email and other “insistent messages” were made “a year after Ahmad handed Meeks 40,000 US dollars”.
“The e-mail was flagged ‘Importance: High.’ A top executive at the Stanford Financial Group wanted an answer.
“Have we an update on Antigua?” the Post quoted Lionel C. Johnson, a senior VP, as demanding.
“Greg Meeks and Ed Ahmad have both called again this afternoon inquiring about the status of Ahmad’s VIP-box invitations,” it added.
The paper charged that Stanford would also “throw cash at the congressman a few months later – hosting a lavish fund-raiser in St. Croix in July 2008, complete with Cristal champagne and caviar that raised at least 13,800 US dollars for Meeks’ campaign committee”.
Stanford, 61, is awaiting trial on charges he engineered a seven-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme; while Ahmad, 43, was indicted this summer in New York, accused of falsifying 50 million dollars in loan applications.
Meeks, 57, is also under investigation by the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the alleged 40,000-dollar Ahmad payment.
The Post said that the congressman is also at the centre of a separate federal probe for his role in a Queens non-profit that allegedly bilked victims of Hurricane Katrina.
It said Meeks’ relationship with Stanford dates back to at least 2003, when the congressman and his wife travelled to Antigua on a junket reportedly sponsored by the Inter-American Economic Council, a Washington-based non-profit backed by Stanford.
Meeks sits on both the House’s Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees and belonged to the “Caribbean Caucus, an informal group of lawmakers Stanford sought to woo,” the paper said.
“The economic development of the Caribbean, and the US Virgin Islands in particular, has been Congressman Meeks’ focus for over a decade,” it quoted Johnson, an executive in charge of government affairs at Stanford Group, as writing in an e-mail, urging company employees to attend the July 2008 fund-raiser at Stanford’s hilltop compound in St. Croix, where ticket prices reportedly began at 1,000 dollars for the soirée.
Meeks refused to answer any questions about his relationship with Stanford or why he agreed to introduce Ahmad to the billionaire, the Post said.
The paper suggested that cricket was the link between Ahmad and Stanford, as the financier owned a cricket stadium and organised the international Twenty20 competition in Antigua while Ahmad sponsored his own cricket competition in New York.
In addition, the Post said Meeks and Ahmad are “longtime friends,” stating that the congressman held “after-hours meetings” with the real-estate broker at his Queens district office, and Ahmad boasted that he had “his own personal political representation”.
Meeks said that the 40,000 dollars he received from Ahmad was a loan, but a House ethics panel said it “appeared to be a gift”, which would be illegal for the congressman to receive.
Meeks paid back the money in 2010, but only after US federal investigators questioned Ahmad about it, the Post reported.
Like Stanford, the Post said Ahmad’s businesses were “long dogged by allegations of scandal, including predatory lending and forged documentation”.
New York State authorities launched five probes into Ahmad’s real-estate operations between 2006 and 2008.
Ahmad, who is currently out on 2.5 million dollars bail and barred from travelling to his native Guyana, faces up to 30 years in prison.
US authorities have said additional charges or more defendants are likely in his case.
By CMC -
Sunday, September 18th, 2011.
Source - Antigua Observer
NEW YORK, CMC – The tabloid New York Post newspaper said on Sunday that a prominent United States congressman with ties to the disgraced Texan financier Allen Stanford was determined to get indicted Guyanese businessman Edul “Ed” Ahmad invited to one of Stanford’s cricket matched in Antigua so that Ahmad could meet him.
In a lengthy exposé, the Post said on Sunday that Queens Congressman Greg Meeks made the request in a February 19, 2008, e-mail, addressed to Yolanda Suarez, chief counsel for the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
The paper said that the email and other “insistent messages” were made “a year after Ahmad handed Meeks 40,000 US dollars”.
“The e-mail was flagged ‘Importance: High.’ A top executive at the Stanford Financial Group wanted an answer.
“Have we an update on Antigua?” the Post quoted Lionel C. Johnson, a senior VP, as demanding.
“Greg Meeks and Ed Ahmad have both called again this afternoon inquiring about the status of Ahmad’s VIP-box invitations,” it added.
The paper charged that Stanford would also “throw cash at the congressman a few months later – hosting a lavish fund-raiser in St. Croix in July 2008, complete with Cristal champagne and caviar that raised at least 13,800 US dollars for Meeks’ campaign committee”.
Stanford, 61, is awaiting trial on charges he engineered a seven-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme; while Ahmad, 43, was indicted this summer in New York, accused of falsifying 50 million dollars in loan applications.
Meeks, 57, is also under investigation by the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the alleged 40,000-dollar Ahmad payment.
The Post said that the congressman is also at the centre of a separate federal probe for his role in a Queens non-profit that allegedly bilked victims of Hurricane Katrina.
It said Meeks’ relationship with Stanford dates back to at least 2003, when the congressman and his wife travelled to Antigua on a junket reportedly sponsored by the Inter-American Economic Council, a Washington-based non-profit backed by Stanford.
Meeks sits on both the House’s Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees and belonged to the “Caribbean Caucus, an informal group of lawmakers Stanford sought to woo,” the paper said.
“The economic development of the Caribbean, and the US Virgin Islands in particular, has been Congressman Meeks’ focus for over a decade,” it quoted Johnson, an executive in charge of government affairs at Stanford Group, as writing in an e-mail, urging company employees to attend the July 2008 fund-raiser at Stanford’s hilltop compound in St. Croix, where ticket prices reportedly began at 1,000 dollars for the soirée.
Meeks refused to answer any questions about his relationship with Stanford or why he agreed to introduce Ahmad to the billionaire, the Post said.
The paper suggested that cricket was the link between Ahmad and Stanford, as the financier owned a cricket stadium and organised the international Twenty20 competition in Antigua while Ahmad sponsored his own cricket competition in New York.
In addition, the Post said Meeks and Ahmad are “longtime friends,” stating that the congressman held “after-hours meetings” with the real-estate broker at his Queens district office, and Ahmad boasted that he had “his own personal political representation”.
Meeks said that the 40,000 dollars he received from Ahmad was a loan, but a House ethics panel said it “appeared to be a gift”, which would be illegal for the congressman to receive.
Meeks paid back the money in 2010, but only after US federal investigators questioned Ahmad about it, the Post reported.
Like Stanford, the Post said Ahmad’s businesses were “long dogged by allegations of scandal, including predatory lending and forged documentation”.
New York State authorities launched five probes into Ahmad’s real-estate operations between 2006 and 2008.
Ahmad, who is currently out on 2.5 million dollars bail and barred from travelling to his native Guyana, faces up to 30 years in prison.
US authorities have said additional charges or more defendants are likely in his case.
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