Flamboyant financier Robert Allen Stanford has been having a difficult time since the SEC accused him of perpetrating a “massive fraud” through his wealth-management firm, Stanford Financial. Because of the charges pending against him, Stanford was deprived of taking his rightful place as No. 405 on the Forbes list of richest Americans this year, the Texan told ABC in an interview that will air tonight. And since they froze his assets, he’s had to live like a poor person. Meaning: He’s actually had to fly commercial. “They make you take your shoes off and everything — it’s terrible,” he complained to the network, which reports that, when describing this miserable treatment, Stanford cried. Other times, he just got really, really angry.
Like when Charlie Gibson asked him about how certain people were comparing his financial empire to Bernie Madoff. “Bullsh—. That’s bullsh—,” he said. “It makes me madder than hell and it touches the core of my soul,” he said.
“If you say it to my face again, I will punch you in the mouth,” he said.
He later clarified that didn’t really mean he was going to hurt grandfatherly 66-year-old Charlie Gibson. It’s just that when a man’s core gets touched like that, he gets upset and confused. He can’t help it. He feels persecuted.
“I’m the maverick rich Texan where they can put the moose head on the wall. And that’s the only reason they went after me,” Stanford said. “I’m fighting for my survival and for my integrity.”
Well, we have to say he’s doing a bang-up job. After all, Hillary Clinton cried on television, and look where it got her.
Exclusive: Tearful Allen Stanford Expects Indictment in Two Weeks [ABC]
