Last week, some of the key players in the effort to recover and distribute funds to victims of the Stanford Ponzi scheme announced a tentative agreement that may result in certain "frozen" funds finally being released to victims. The agreement between the Joint Liquidators (accountants Marcus Wide and Hugh Dickson of Grant Thornton, who were appointed by the Eastern Caribbean High Court at Antigua), the U.S. Examiner (John Little) and the U.S. Receiver (Ralph Janvey), if finalized, will allow $330 million in funds that were recovered but frozen at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice to be distributed to victims.

As I discussed at length here, in March 2012 the jury in Allen Stanford's criminal case also found that $330 million discovered in various Stanford-related financial accounts must be forfeited. The DOJ froze these assets, which were located in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, so that they could be returned to investors by the the U.S. Receiver. This plan was derailed by a legal challenge by the Joint Liquidators, however, who asserted that the $330 million should be released to them for distribution. The Joint Liquidators argued that they would be faster, cheaper, and fairer at collecting and distributing money to victims than the U.S. court-appointed receiver, who earlier this year was criticized for spending roughly 50 cents for every dollar collected. 

The Joint Liquidators and the U.S. Receiver have been battling this issue out in court in 2012, but announced last week that they had finally 

reached an agreement, in principle, that, if finalized and approved by the relevant authorities, would result in (a) coordination between the U.S. Receiver and the Joint Liquidators concerning their respective claim processes, (b) increased sharing of information, (c) cooperation with respect to the asset recovery and some of the other litigation efforts, (d) a resolution of pending disputes concerning funds now frozen in the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland, and (e) a release of funds for distribution to Stanford's investor-victims.

According to last week's announcement, the agreement will hopefully be presented to the court for approval "in the near future." For Stanford victims who have had almost no good news since the fraud was uncovered in 2009, finalizing this agreement and a quick distribution of the $330 million would be a very welcome development.

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