Allen Stanford
“Sir” Allen Stanford the fake billionaire gets 110 years for defrauding people of an estimated $7 billion.
Rare is the person who doesn’t enjoy a good caper flick or one about con-men. I’ve been a fan of David Mamet’s works since the early 1990s, but the Allen Stanford story is actually better than most fiction because it’s the real thing. It’s the tale of a true life con-man. Indeed it’s fascinating enough to be worthy of a book and movie. I say fascinating because while Stanford was never actually a billionaire he convinced himself in his own mind that he was. This belief enabled him to draw in both the clients and employees who then helped him to build a vast international financial services organization and allowed him to play the role of a billionaire. Talk about the power of imagination. Talk about a powerful reality distortion field.
Sadly, it was all an illusion and many innocent people lost their savings as a result of trusting him.
You can read a short BBC piece on his sentencing.
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