|  | | 2009 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Former Miami DEA Chief Indicted in Stanford Probe
Staff Writer
Daily Business Review. September 11, 2009
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EXCERPT: Thomas Raffanello, a former global security director with Stanford Financial Group and once South Florida's top anti-drug agent, was indicted Thursday in the collapse of the financial company described by the Securities and Exchange Commission as an $8 billion fraud. Raffanello, 61, of Coral Gables, Fla., was charged with obstructing an SEC case, destroying records in a federal investigation and conspiracy for his work at Stanford's Fort Lauderdale, Fla., office. A Dallas judge handling the SEC civil case against Stanford issued an order in February instructing all employees to preserve company documents and protect them from destruction. Raffanello was called the same day to discuss the court order, the indictment charged. Six days later, he allegedly directed the shredding of documents at the Fort Lauderdale office. […] Raffanello was in the law enforcement spotlight after he was appointed special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami in 2002. He announced major drug indictments and was part of the agency's transition to a post-Sept. 11 enforcement world. Another connection to Stanford involving a former DEA agent surfaced earlier this summer in a civil lawsuit unrelated to the indictment. Tom Cash, who specialized in money laundering investigations in a 25-year career with the DEA including seven years in charge of the Florida and Caribbean division, became an executive at Kroll, a top-drawer private investigative agency. […] Cash was not named as a defendant, but his stamped signature appears on a $15,000 contract with NECA calling on Kroll to perform due diligence on Stanford in 2007. |
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