COALICION VICTIMAS DE STANFORD AMERICA LATINA
(COViSAL)
June 14, 2012
Jaime Escalona’s Testimony during the
Sentencing Hearing of Allen Stanford at the US District Court in Houston
Honorable
Judge Hittner,
Thank
you for allowing me to speak here today.
My name is Jaime
Escalona, I am the Director of the Coalición Víctimas de Stanford América
Latina (COViSAL), I am here today to speak on behalf of my family, the families
of members of COViSAL, and all other families whose lives have been destroyed
by the actions of Mr. Stanford and his accomplices.
COViSAL consists of more than 500 duly
registered families, over 1,000 unregistered members and many followers with
total CD losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are a staggering number of families across
the world that have been affected by Stanford’s scheme - in Venezuela (10,432 families), United States (4,350 families), Mexico (3,865 families), Peru (553 families), and many others.
Of
the total Stanford victims, 60% are from Latin American countries lacking
medical and social security systems to guarantee proper medical treatments and
a dignified retirement. In order to preserve their patrimony from devaluations,
high inflation and the arbitrary decisions from their governments, these
victims purchased the CDs to ensure a monthly income to cover medical and
living expenses.
Stanford
and his accomplices took advantage of the trust placed in U.S. companies to
defraud middle class people striving for a modest, secure future in countries
where that is not always an easy task.
Mr. Stanford stole the life savings of innocent
and unaware families that were left in poverty, unable to pay for medical
treatment and living expenses. Personally, we have an autistic grandson who was
receiving medical treatments twice a year in the United States, and now for
more than three years we have not been able to pay for it, because Stanford
stole all of our savings.
There are many other families in similar
situations. I receive calls and emails regularly from desperate families
telling me that their husbands, wives, fathers and mothers have died because
they couldn’t bear the pain and suffering of finding themselves, old, ill and
pennyless, after loosing all of their life savings they worked for so many
years to attain.
The
majority of affected victims are modest people, families with children, some
ill or with special needs - many are elderly, ill or close to retirement, and
now they are unable to pay for their critical medical treatments because they
put their trust in the wrong man. Stanford has callously destroyed their futures
and their children’s future, all for the sake of lining his own pockets.
More
than three (3) years have passed since he and his accomplices stole our money.
This is too much time for the thousands of victims who are immersed in endless
agony and desperation because of their loss. Many have already died while
waiting in vain for even some small portion of their savings to be returned in
time for life saving operations, or treatment of cancer and other life
threatening diseases.
During
these tragic years, we, the victims, have sadly watched the possibility of
receiving an economic relief that could mitigate our losses begin to vanish in
the millions of dollars of legal fees, expenses and useless legal fights
between the Joint Liquidators and the U.S. Receiver.
Mr.
Stanford’s heartless actions, to deceive and steal the life savings belonging
to thousands of regular people around the world, were coldly calculated and
premeditated with complete disregard for the horrendous consequences. The rich
and powerful got their money out, and the innocent were left behind to suffer
and die.
Allen
Stanford deserves the maximum sentence allowed by the law and should take to
prison the images of the people that have died because of his choices. These
innocent souls will accompany him in jail and will serve as a reminder every
night of his destructive actions against innocent people.
We
have waited too long for justice to be done, and while we still wait for some
restitution of our savings, we hope that in some small measure truth and
righteousness will prevail and Stanford will have to face the consequences of
the atrocities he has committed.
Stanford,
you deserve what’s coming to you, dirty rotten scoundrel!
Thank
you.
