Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens) is accused of soliciting favors from Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez on behalf of an alleged Ponzi schemer who paid for the politician's Caribbean vacations. According to a story broken by the Miami Herald, Texas billionaire and suspected scammer Allen Stanford asked Meeks — a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs — to convince Chavez to initiate a criminal investigation against a former employee in March 2006. Meeks allegedly agreed, and traveled to Venezuela a month later where he met with Chavez. Venezuelan prosecutors indicted the former employee the following year.
According to the Daily News, Meeks had long benefited from his friendly relationship with Stanford. The accused $7 billion Ponzi schemer's nonprofit the Inter-American Economic Council — which has fought against tighter banking restrictions — funded several Caribbean vacations for Meeks and his wife, shelling out at least $22,347 on airfare, hotels and meals since 2003, usually for "business round tables." The tabloid notes that since 2007, Stanford and his employees have contributed $12,100 to Meeks' campaign.
Meeks did not respond to questions from the Post, but Stanford's lawyer Ken Schaffer told the tabloid that "there's no reason to believe that anything illegal or unethical was asked of the congressman." He added: "They were having problems with an employee they believed was stealing from the bank ... and he simply was reporting what had happened. I'm not aware of him making any request for anything in particular."
