Business Crimes Hotline

Antitrust Division Charges Two in Connection with Stanford Financial Group Investigations

On Sept. 10, 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's New York Field Office announced the indictment of Thomas Raffanello, a former global director of security in the Fort Lauderdale office of Stanford Financial Group. Raffanello is charged in a three-count superseding indictment with conspiracy to obstruct an SEC proceeding and to destroy documents in a federal investigation, obstructing an SEC proceeding, and destroying documents in a federal investigation. The superseding indictment also charged Bruce Perraud, a former global security specialist in the same office, with conspiracy and obstructing an SEC proceeding. An original indictment, unsealed on June 19, 2009, had charged Perraud with one count of destroying records in a federal investigation. The charges relate to an SEC investigation into Stanford Financial Group and its subsidiary, Stanford International Bank Ltd. The SEC has alleged in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that Stanford entities orchestrated a “massive, ongoing fraud.”