Stanford sale is moving ahead

PANAMA. The Stanford Bank purchase is moving ahead. The Bank Superintendent (SBP) has said in a press release that the judiciary custodian in the US has received and accepted the shares purchase.

Officially the buyer is still unknown but previous research by La Estrella has revealed it is the Weston group, headed by Joseph Salterio, former general manager of HSBC.

The SBP said that they recovered $48 million from the banks funds that were at different jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, Antigua, the tiny twin-island nation rocked by allegations of a massive fraud committed on its shores by one of its chief benefactors, Sir Allen Stanford, has received a helping hand from Venezuela in the form of a grant.

The debt-ridden, tourism-driven economy of Antigua has suffered since US regulators in February accused Sir Allen of operating a $7bn Ponzi scheme through his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. Venezuela has also been touched by the fraud allegations - some 15,000 of its citizens invested in the "improbably" high-yielding dollar-denominated certificates of deposits offered by the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB).

The Venezuelan government has agreed to provide the Antiguan government with $50m in urgent financial assistance, according to island officials. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has actively courted Caribbean leaders.

Antigua had petitioned Mr Chavez for assistance this month, and "were heartened to receive a positive response within seven days", finance minister Harold Lovell said in a statement.