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. more ›

Hindsight is 20/20: The NY Times reports the country's "largest independent securities regulator found that its staff members had missed numerous red flags that would have uncovered frauds run by Bernard L. Madoff and the Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford." Apparently the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s "predecessor, NASD, did not act from 2003 to 2005 on 'credible information from at least five different sources claiming that the Stanford C.D.’s were a potential fraud.'" While no whistleblowers specifically contacted Finra about Madoff (the SEC was warned), Finra did find " several facts worthy of inquiry...that, with the benefit of hindsight, should have been pursued." more ›