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Stanford's charm short-lived for women investors

By Anna Driver and Robert MacMillan

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Allen Stanford, the billionaire Texan at the center of a fraud investigation that spans three continents, charmed women as well as investors and has left an angry trail of both.

Stanford, 58, was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday with fraudulently selling $8 billion in certificates of deposit with impossibly high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank LTD (SIB), headquartered in Antigua.

The case has left investors in the United States and Latin America reeling as they rushed to try to recover money they invested in Stanford's organization.

But a divorce filing in Texas and a paternity lawsuit in Florida open a window into Stanford's luxurious lifestyle.

Court papers show his possessions included private planes and helicopters, yachts, sailboats, expensive cars, estates in Coral Gables, Florida, St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and Antigua in the West Indies.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation served Stanford with court papers on Thursday in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where the family of a woman said in media reports to be his girlfriend has a home. He has not been arrested and has not been charged with any crime.

His whereabouts had been the subject of intense speculation since Tuesday after he failed to respond to an SEC subpoena ... more

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