A Steal! Disgraced Financier's Fire Sale

(AP)  Sal Lazzara needed some new office furniture. Thanks to a flamboyant financier's downfall, he found a matching set with an infamous pedigree.

For $1,500, the Boca Raton restaurateur bought a maroon leather chair, a cherry-wood desk and a matching credenza - all once owned by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme.

Lazzara discovered his new furnishings at AMC Liquidators - "Value in Volume" is their slogan - a South Florida company that hauled out 25 truckloads of luxury office goods from the disgraced businessman's Miami offices last week and put them on the market.

Stanford had adorned four floors in a downtown high-rise with Oriental rugs, regal marble-topped tables and leather couches. He had bronze eagles (the symbol of his company, Stanford Financial Group) and blown-up photos of Palm Beach County polo grounds that he sponsored.

There's even a tapestry of Louis XIV, France's legendary 17th Century "Sun King."

"The quality of this stuff is just really nice," said Lazzara, standing in the AMC showroom and patting the nearly-new desk. He thinks he saved 70 percent off of retail.

"I got a steal," he said.

Valued at $2 million, the bounty for sale in Fort Lauderdale was only a small part of Stanford's lavish lifestyle. In 2008, he was named the world's 605th richest person by Forbes magazine, with an estimated worth of $2 billion.

Court documents revealed details like private jets valued at $100 million, $100,000 a week yacht rentals, and, in his Houston headquarters, a professional kitchen. Stanford also used the title "Sir" in 2006 after being knighted by the leaders of Antigua & Barbuda.

In his heyday, Stanford was a dominant figure in his adopted island homeland and also held considerable influence in Washington, where his campaign donations, mostly to Democrats, reached a peak as efforts to strengthen financial regulations died in the Senate.

In February, U.S. federal regulators sued Stanford and alleged that he committed fraud. He is accused of promising clients unrealistic returns on $8 billion in certificates of deposit and other financial fraud through an offshore bank in Antigua.

In March, a federal judge ruled that the government could go after at least $226.6 million in back taxes, penalties and interest it says are owed by Stanford.

(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

(The former owner of this brass eagle sculpture is accused of bilking tens of thousands of investors of approximately $8 billion. And now this keepsake can be yours!)

Stanford denies the SEC's allegations, and he has not been charged with any crimes. The chief investment officer of Stanford's parent company, Laura Pendergest-Holt, faces criminal charges of obstructing the SEC's investigation by lying about her knowledge of the firm's activities and omitting key details. Her attorney has said she was "set up" by Stanford.

Don Goldberg, a spokesman for Stanford's attorneys, said Stanford and his lawyers are "concerned" about the liquidation of the offices nationwide.

"It's part and parcel of an overly hasty effort to liquidate a viable business that viable revenues," Goldberg said.

But a federal judge in Dallas has named a receiver to liquidate the company, and the contents of Stanford offices are being sold.

That's where AMC Liquidators of Fort Lauderdale comes in.

Michael Grimme is the owner of AMC. His business specializes in emptying hotels, offices and stores of unwanted furnishings and then reselling them. Business is up in recent years due to bankruptcies and downsizing.

"Everything here has a story," Grimme said, sweeping his hand toward one of Stanford's treasures - the tapestry of King Louis XIV - and toward a $99 blue leather chair from the Lowes Hotel in Miami Beach.

Grimme's company was asked to bid on the liquidation of Stanford's five Florida offices. He won the bid for the Miami office only, in part because the owners of the other four Stanford offices decided to keep the furnishings in place of back rent. The Miami property owner decided to sell the contents, Grimme said.

The offices for about 180 people at Stanford Financial in Miami occupied 90,000 square feet. Grimme said most of the contents were high-end furnishings, and not drab cubicle partitions or metal filing cabinets.

Grimme said the Stanford case reminded him of other Wall Street scandals and losses, including New York financier Bernie Madoff, who pleaded guilty in March to charges his investment advisory operation was a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme.

"A lot of my friends were targeted in the Madoff scheme, and I've lost a lot of money in my accounts, too," he said. "We were very well aware of who we were buying this inventory from. You could say, maybe it's payback time."

[whitemale08]

Small-fries like Stanford gets liquidated but Goldman Sucks and JP Morogan gets bailouts for their massive Ponzi-scheme of worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps.

Why are we so STUPID?

[Dgunner]

Ther is no such thing as corinthian leather. Leather is leather wether it was hammered in italy or by the corinthian shore . This was a name made up by ford in the fifties.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

...and I meant to add the reason I brought up the Iranian story is because if you click on that story here, you cannot comment. It's obvious they are trying to censor public sentiment on the issue. Gee, that's what they are doing in Iran.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

Out of all the items that you could have photographed, you chose that HIDEOUS thing? First of all, yes, it's nice to rob from the rich and give to the poor when crime is involved, however, it is much more important for the public to be able to comment about the deadly violence in Iran and that lunatic running the show than to worry about if the fine corinthian leather is a good buy.

[caligula1--2008]

And yet, here you are, commenting on it. Isn't that ironic?