In recent days we’ve been digging into accused fraudster Allen Stanford’s decade of political giving and what he got for it. A lot of our attention to date has focused on two 2001-2002 era bills that his lobbying appears to have played some role in stymying or killing. But now we’re looking at a 2007 bill sponsored by Sens. Levin, Coleman and Obama that would have cracked down on off-share banks like Stanford’s. The bill eventually died in the Finance Committee. Never even came up for a vote.
Now, there were a lot of organized interests who did not want this thing to happen. Many more than just Stanford. But given the scale of Stanford’s fraud we’re trying to get a handle on what role if any his lobbying may have played. We have a lot of DC readers, so if you have any pointers on what happened to Sen. Levin’s bill back in 2007, drop us a line.
Here’s what we’ve come up with so far.