By Ivan Pereira
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) is under intense scrutiny after a report revealed his ties to an accused Ponzi schemer.
The congressman reportedly used money from Allen Stanford, who has been charged by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for embezzling billions from his financial group, to take trips to the Caribbean between 2003 and 2007, according to the Miami Herald.
One of the trips included a 2006 visit to Venezuela, where Meeks met with President Hugo Chavez and demanded the South American leader investigate one of Stanford’s administrators, who was going to blow the whistle on the CEO’s alleged fraud, the newspaper reported
The congressman’s office did not return a phone call for comment. The attorney representing Stanford, who has been jailed while waiting for a federal trial, confirmed that his client talked to Meeks but said he did not ask him for any favors.
“He told him about a problem that he had in Venezuela but didn’t ask him to do anything illegal,” Kent Schaffer told the TimesLedger in a phone interview.
Meeks traveled to Venezuela in April 2006 to help negotiate a deal with Chavez that would give residents of southeast Queens cheaper home-heating oil refined from Venezuelan crude. Although the congressman received some criticism for working with the controversial president, he said he traveled to South America for the needy.
“The bottom line is this is about poor people, when it gets cold, being able to heat their homes,” Meeks said at a news conference three years ago.
There may have been a hidden agenda for the visit, according to the Miami Herald.
Giraldo Tirado, president of Stanford’s Venezuelan bank, filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the Texan businessman, accusing him of stealing from the company and Stanford called Meeks seeking assistance, the paper reported.
In the conversation, which was allegedly heard by federal agents on speakerphone, Stanford urged the congressman to ask Chavez to pursue criminal charges against his employee, according to the Miami Herald.
A year later, Tirado was arrested and charged by the Venezuelan authorities with tax evasion and other counts.
Stanford was indicted last year by the SEC, which contends he was part of a massive Ponzi scheme that swindled nearly $8 billion from his investors, arrested and charged in June. Employees from the Stanford Financial Group in Houston donated $12,100 to Meeks between 2007 and 2008, including two $2,300 donations from Sanford himself, Federal Election Commission records show.
Although Congress has not announced any action or investigation into Meeks over the allegations, one government watchdog group has already criticized the congressman’s actions.
A policy director for the Campaign Legal Center told the Miami Herald that Meeks’ Venezuelan trip should be reviewed by the Office of Congressional Ethics because it raised “questions about the motivation.”
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
