LONDON - Depositors of Texan billionaire Allen Stanford's bank, which is at the center of an alleged $8 billion fraud, may see a small sliver of their savings returned in a year's time. The assets of the bank are estimated between $500 million and $1 billion and the liabilities are estimated at $7.2 billion, the banks London-based liquidator told Forbes.  "This is a huge gap, and it is necessary for us to try and ascertain where the missing funds are," said Nigel Hamilton-Smith one of the liquidators appointed by a court in Antigua, where the offshore bank is based. One bright spot: "I would like to believe that we will be dealing with an initial distribution to creditors within twelve months," he said. "If we can establish that there has been misappropriation, mismanagement or fraud on the part of Allen Stanford, we will be going after those assets." The Securities and Exchange Commission in February charged Stanford and other defendants with operating a multi-billion dollar fraudulent investment scheme. He has denied the civil allegations. (See "Billionaire Stanford Charged With Fraud.")  Hamilton-Smith said the majority of creditors affected were residents in Latin America with more than 60% of the claims coming from Central and South America. Hamilton-Smith said many came from that part of the world perhaps because the investors "had dollar deposits but were not comfortable with the facilities offered in their own countries."  Hamilton-Smith, who was speaking during a brief visit to the U.K. where his firm Vantis Business Recovery Services is based, said it was too early to say how much investors would manage to retrieve.  A group of Latin American investors has said that most depositors have already resigned themselves to the idea that they will not see all of their money back.  Hamilton-Smith, who said the "very complex process" could take up to five years, admitted retrieving those funds won't be easy. "We are seeking to liquidize the known assets which are located in several jurisdictions around the world, predominantly in Europe. So it will be a significant asset tracing exercise. This is a very complex liquidation process. Money has been moved around the world and we have got to follow the money."  He added Stanford built a "very substantial financial services empire." "It is likely that much of the missing funds went to building that empire. Mr Stanford has over 100 companies, he bought very expensive toys in that he had a fleet of planes, very expensive yachts, homes... and our concern is that a lot of the investors money has been lost building the financial empire and the lifestyle adopted by Allen Stanford."  Asked what kind of assets he has been able to find based on his full access to Stanford's books, he said Stanford had "significant investment in equities and government bonds and in land held in investment portfolios." He would not elaborate further.  But not all parties are willing to cooperate. Hamilton-Smith said his firm was currently involved in four jurisdictions trying to gain access to identified assets but suspected that "further proceedings will be issued in a number of other jurisdictions." "There are various jurisdictions around the world from which we might not get cooperation as they try to look after their own investors first. But I am hopeful that the majority of jurisdictions will cooperate."
Depositors who banked with alleged fraudster Allen Stanford should start seeing some of their money in a year.