Raymond Floyd was a Madoff victim

[TEPaul]

MikeY:

I don't think there is a scintilla of doubt that YOU are "THE FATHER" of the GREAT "Athens School of Golf Course Architecture", do you?


I'm going to be very interested in following the future situation with this Stanford Financial thing. It does look eerily like Madoff's modus operandi, including the size of it---eg $50 billion.

If it does turn out to be the same kind of thing I propose that Sam Maryland become GOLFCLUBATLAS.com's "Professor Emeritus of Finance."

[Steve Lapper]

Sam

another Madoff?

Yes, smoke  & mirrors!

[Anthony Butler]

When I visited Stanford many years ago, I saw a tshirt: "Harvard -The Stanford of the East"

It would be more accurate to call Boston College the "Stanford of the East". At least that's what BC aspires to.

[Jason McNamara]

Ironically, it was a BC grad who chronicled Madoff's misdeeds.  I imagine Stanford's and Harvard's business schools would love to be able to claim Mr. Markopolos as an alumnus.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/08/the_whistleblower/

[Mike_Young]

Ironically, it was a BC grad who chronicled Madoff's misdeeds.  I imagine Stanford's and Harvard's business schools would love to be able to claim Mr. Markopolos as an alumnus.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/08/the_whistleblower/

Before Mr. Markopolos went to school at some of the prstigious northern schools, his grandfather was in the Georgia area where he was an inventor. He invented a game  I remember playing as a child in the community swimming pools...never thought his grandson would become famous for his undercover work......

[Joe Hancock]

Ironically, it was a BC grad who chronicled Madoff's misdeeds.  I imagine Stanford's and Harvard's business schools would love to be able to claim Mr. Markopolos as an alumnus.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/08/the_whistleblower/

Before Mr. Markopolos went to school at some of the prstigious northern schools, his grandfather was in the Georgia area where he was an inventor. He invented a game  I remember playing as a child in the community swimming pools...never thought his grandson would become famous for his undercover work......

I need an emoticon holding a flashing "APPLAUSE" sign.......

Well done, you earned a NuGrape and a Moon Pie.....

 

[Sam Maryland]

Doesn't sound good:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123483075794395665.html

This is notable too: http://www.stanfordfinancial.com/news_item/2007/12/Stanford_Financial_Expands_Footprint_in_Golf_to_Support_LPGA_with_Signature_Initiatives

I point out the second link because it gives some detail on a relationship between IMG and Stanford Financial.  Further, Stanford has sponsorship agreements with Vijay, Camillo, David Toms and Morgan Pressel.

The company also has title sponsorships with the PGA Tour (Mempis) and the LPGA Tour (season ending Tour Championship, formerly the ADT).  The LPGA event is new in '09 (arranged by IMG) -- has to be very questionable as to whether it even happens this year to not. 

I sure hope IMG wasn't letting the players actually keep funds at Stanford.  The other thing that's interesting is that Teddy Forstmann, who now controls IMG, has a pretty good nose for avoiding "too good to be true" schemes (with a couple notable tech related exceptions).   But I'm not sure how involved Teddy is on a day-to-day basis.

[Michael Blake]

i'll be watching tonight.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/

[Sam Maryland]

 BN   11:21  *U.S. MARSHALS SEEN ENTERING STANFORD FINL HOUSTON OFFICE: CNBC

BN   11:31   SEC SAYS STANFORD ORCHESTRATED `MASSIVE, ONGOING FRAUD'

[TEPaul]

Sam:

I'm pretty sure, at this point, we haven't seen the end of some bigtime financial entities suddenly collapsing and SF sure looks scary. I wonder where we are in this whole thing. As Churchill said at some point during WW2; "We may not be at the beginning of the end but we may be at the end of the beginning."

[Joe Bausch]

Nice and concise about Stanford Financial being raided:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7895505.stm

[Sam Maryland]

TEP, so tough to say.  I recently heard a banker asked "what inning are we in"?  (in terms of working through the credit problems)  His response was "the middle innings...of a doubleheader".

I'm getting the sense a lot of pro athletes might be caught up in this thing with Stanford Financial.  Not saying that any have everything there, but get the sense a good number have something there (golfers and otherwise). 

I wonder what the hospitals get for an induced coma?  Wake me up in 8 months...

[john_stiles]

Sam,


No FDIC insurance - check,    you can't make any real interest, real money, if you have to follow the Feds guidelines

Hey, where is my money ?

It is gone.

[Richard Choi]

Whenever you see the CEO of an investment company spend money like a drunken sailor on weekend pass, i.e. hand out $20 million for a cricket match, you should know better than to leave your money with him.

If a money manager doesn't live like Warrent Buffett did in his prime, my money isn't going to that guy.

[Tom_Doak]

I got to meet Mr. Stanford (now Sir Allen, he was knighted last year!) a couple of years ago and talk to him about a potential project.  I guess I will cross that one off the "prospects" list.

[Sam Maryland]

Whenever you see the CEO of an investment company spend money like a drunken sailor on weekend pass, i.e. hand out $20 million for a cricket match, you should know better than to leave your money with him.

If a money manager doesn't live like Warrent Buffett did in his prime, my money isn't going to that guy.

Is this illustrative of "drunken sailor" spending?

**Stanford, who considers himself "more of a developer at heart than a banker," has come full circle with his latest project, an elite resort nine years in the planning. With the help of 17 architectural and engineering firms from around the world, Stanford is planning to have 30 mansions built on an undisclosed island in the Caribbean. This development, which Stanford calls the Islands Club, will feature the largest private aviation complex in the world, with parking for 100 private jets and a marina with dock space for 30 giant yachts. The current plan calls for members to plunk down a deposit of $50 million, which they will get back if they leave. That's on top of a $15 million annual membership fee. Assuming that the grandiose offer attracts buyers and that construction begins this year, Stanford's "utopia in the tropics" would be in operation by 2011.**

Tom Doak, was this the project?  ;-)

The above quote from the story at this link:  http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/1006/202.html

Maybe Forbes should beef up the investigative journalism unit?

[BCrosby]

The Stanford Group was to be a key sponsor of a charity golf event in our area. Guess we are back to square one.

Bob

[Eric Smith]

I got to meet Mr. Stanford (now Sir Allen, he was knighted last year!) a couple of years ago and talk to him about a potential project. 

I turned down a project like that this past year ... on an island in the Caribbean.  You would have had to build some sort of "port" first to land all the supplies you needed.  It would have been quite a logistical undertaking; doable, but very expensive.

**Stanford, who considers himself "more of a developer at heart than a banker," has come full circle with his latest project, an elite resort nine years in the planning. With the help of 17 architectural and engineering firms from around the world, Stanford is planning to have 30 mansions built on an undisclosed island in the Caribbean. This development, which Stanford calls the Islands Club, will feature the largest private aviation complex in the world, with parking for 100 private jets and a marina with dock space for 30 giant yachts. The current plan calls for members to plunk down a deposit of $50 million, which they will get back if they leave. That's on top of a $15 million annual membership fee. Assuming that the grandiose offer attracts buyers and that construction begins this year, Stanford's "utopia in the tropics" would be in operation by 2011.**

Tom Doak, was this the project?  ;-)

TD: One and the same?

[Rick Shefchik]

Come on Joe, if you're gonna quote the idiotic malaproper, you gotta do it right;

"Fool me once...ah, uhh....fool me...aaaah.....shame on you."


The best that can be said about The Little Shrub is he actually out-malaproped both Yogi and Casey! Or did he malaprob more than he malaproped?

Whatever.

Tom,

Assuming you're referring to W, here's the actual quote:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] - shame on you. Fool me — I can't get fooled again."

(It sounds much better if you play the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the background, as is done often on a Twin Cities radio station.)

[Tom_Doak]

Eric:

No, the middle reference from December was not the same as the one I spoke with Mr. Stanford about.  There were LOTS of visionaries in the Caribbean as recently as a year or two ago, when the money was flowing easily.

However, Sam's little snippet was indeed the potential project, although some of the details are overstated.

[John_Cullum]

Stanford is planning to have 30 mansions built on an undisclosed island in the Caribbean. ..., with parking for 100 private jets

30 homes with parking for 100 jets, that's rich wherever you're from

[Tom_Doak]

That's one of the exaggerations.

[Rich Goodale]

I'm surprised the cricket aficionados have not chimed in yet.

Stanford was personally bankrolling much of the West Indian cricket team and had signed a deal with the English Cricket Board (ECB) for a lucrative "20/20" series this summer.  Last year he sponsored a competiton on his own cricket ground essentially pitting England vs. the West Indies in a 20/20 game (imagine a baseball game where there are more home runs than outs....).  Everybody on the winning squad got $1million while the losers got nothing.  The winners (West Indies) are probably the only people to have made a real profit from Stanford in the past year, unless, of course they reinvested their winnings with him.....

The ECB is doing a lot of arse-covering today as well as trying to find somebody else to fill the gap in their expected funding that has now disappeared.

As for other athletes, given his seeming omni-presence, I'd be surprised if none are caught up in this Madoff II affair.

[John Keenan]

Curious what logo will be on VJ's visor if he plays at Rivera this weekend?

[Rich Goodale]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/18/allen-stanford-cas-hewlett

Interesting new development.....

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