PLEASE DON'T DRINK THE WATER or maybe trust our protectors?

Drainage Canal, Baton Rouge LA 2007 from the series Land's End

All reproduction rights reserved Wm. Greiner

Vitter urges Senate hearings on Stanford

U.S. Sen. David Vitter has sent a letter to the Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Sen. Chris Dodd, and the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, urging the senators to hold a special hearing before the start of August. The letter, also signed by Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., asks that the committee review the Stanford Group’s alleged Ponzi scheme and the “failures of our nation’s regulatory agencies to intervene to protect the companies defrauded investors.”

The strongly worded letter says the federal oversight agencies’ failure is “shocking,” especially considering that the “Stanford Group Companies have a long history with these agencies.” It also firmly asserts that if any of the involved regulatory agencies had stepped in regarding Stanford earlier it would “have likely saved these investors from the hardships they face now.

Vitter has been an outspoken advocate for the Louisiana victims of the alleged fraud since shortly after it was announced Feb. 17. Kim Scullin, a representative with the Louisiana Stanford Victims Group, said in an e-mail, “It is imperative to me that we discover how this was allowed to occur for so many years, impacting thousands of middle-class working and retired Americans who tried to do everything right.”

The Baton Rouge Business Report by Olivia Watkins. 6/29/09