Sir Allen Who? Stanford not on Houston's radar

By Anna Driver

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Ask Houston residents what they know about Stanford Group Co, the privately held financial services firm accused of an $8 billion fraud by the U.S. government, and many mention oak trees.

In 1999, the Houston company cut down six 20-foot tall oak trees to make way for landscaping and a fountain bearing the company's militaristic eagle and shield logo in front of its U.S. headquarters, even though local officials said the company had no right to do it.

Stanford's action sparked outrage from conservationists and civic groups and a wave of media coverage. Ten years later, the company with 500 workers here appears to have done little to mend fences in the nation's fourth largest city.

Allen Stanford, 58, the fifth-generation Texan and billionaire accused of a "massive ongoing fraud" by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, does not spend much of his time or money in Houston.

Although his financial empire has a global center on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and his Stanford International Bank is based in Antigua, Stanford Group Co is based in Houston, and those were the offices that federal agents first swooped down on this week.

"I've never seen his name anywhere," said David Jones of Dini Partners, a fund-raising consultant for nonprofit organizations including Allen Stanford's alma mater Baylor University. "And I don't see the firm showing up on donor lists."

It is in sharp contrast to the high profile of Enron Corp, the infamous Houston-based energy company that collapsed in 2001. Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay was a leader on the city's business and charity circuits.

The Greater Houston Partnership, a local organization aimed at promoting business, sought to minimize Stanford's importance to the city's financial industry.