The financier R. Allen Stanford has just gone on trial in Houston federal court on charges that he ran a Ponzi scheme that stole billions of dollars from thousands of investors. Now, the Department of Justice is reportedly investigating a prominent securities lawyer to see whether he prolonged Stanford’s operation by crossing the line from advocate to co-conspirator.
Thomas Sjoblom
The lawyer, Thomas Sjoblom, was a partner at the international law firm of Proskauer Rose and chairman of its securities practice while he was advising Stanford. He was also a former 20-year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, as Reuters noted in its report on the investigation of Sjoblom.
The professional path from, say, assistant United States Attorney or assistant district attorney to criminal defense lawyer is a well traveled one, as is the hop over the professional fence from enforcement agency lawyer to defense counsel for people in trouble with the agency.
But the DOJ has been investigating Sjoblom for possible obstruction of justice, witness tampering and conspiracy in connection with his efforts to persuade the SEC to lay off in its investigation of Stanford, Reuters reported, attributing its information to “people familiar with the probe.”
As Reuters noted, Sjoblom has not been charged “and it is possible he never will be.” But for the moment, the questions swirling around the lawyer’s conduct add one more controversy to what prosecutors say was a Caribbean-based Ponzi operation second in scope only to that of the notorious Bernard Madoff.
Stanford is alleged to have had help from regulators in Antigua, as the 2009 indictment against him spelled out. (As Main Justice noted last fall, the case has been further complicated by a dispute between a receiver in Antigua and one in the United States.)
“As Stanford’s trial began this week, one question left unanswered was: How did he keep authorities at bay for so long?” Reuters said in its report. “A Reuters examination of his case finds that the answer lay in part in the legal advice he obtained from former SEC officials and other ex-regulators and law-enforcement officials.”
People “with first-hand knowledge of the matter” say Sjoblom offered the DOJ his testimony against Stanford in exchange for immunity, but that the DOJ rejected the offer, Reuters said. Prosecutors wanted “a formal acknowledgment” by Sjoblom of his own wrongdoing, Reuters said, citing “people involved in the discussions.”
Sjoblom declined to answer questions by telephone or email, Reuters said.
