February 20, 2009

The Venezuelan government on Thursday took over the Stanford Bank Venezuela, whose owner is accused in the United States of a multibillion-dollar investment and sales fraud scheme, the state-run news agency reported."Stanford Bank Venezuela will be put on sale as soon as possible," said Ali Rodriguez Araque, the country's minister of economy and finance, said. "We already have a group interested in acquiring the bank entity."

In recent days, depositors had worried that troubles at Stanford International Bank would hurt Stanford Bank Venezuela and had withdrawn cash from the small local bank, even though the companies' assets are separate, industry officials and bank customers said.The bank recorded "extraordinary" withdrawals Tuesday and Wednesday beyond what it can manage, said Edgar Hernandez Behrens, Venezuela's superintendent of banks.