Venezuela on Thursday seized a failed bank controlled by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford after a run on deposits there, while clients were prevented from withdrawing their money from Stanford International Bank and its affiliates in a half-dozen other countries, according to AP. The Venezuelan government said it would immediately put the Caracas-based Stanford Bank SA up for sale and guarantee the remaining savings of some 15,000 Venezuelans, most of them small depositors. A group of wealthy Venezuelans also holds $2.5 billion in assets at the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, but their investments are outside the purview of Venezuelan law and will not be protected by Caracas, Banking Superintendent Edgar Hernandez said.
