Allen Stanford Bought Protection From SEC With Drug Information

From the very beginning of the Allen Stanford scandal, there's been speculation of his playing some role in the drug trade, and talk that he may have been some kind of US government asset.

That's been confirmed by the BBC:

Secret documents seen by Panorama (BBC) show both governments knew in 1990 that the Texan was a former bankrupt and his first bank was suspected of involvement with Latin American money-launderers.

...

He was initially investigated by the SEC for running a possible Ponzi fraud in the summer of 2006, but by the winter of that year the inquiry was stopped.

Panorama understands that the decision was taken because of a request by another government agency.

Panorama is aware of strong evidence that Sir Allen was a confidential agent of the DEA as far back as 1999 - the year he made out the $3.1m cheque to the DEA.