OYEZ OYEZ OYEZ

It's official.

Closer to home, John Pacenti of DBR reports on alleged links between R. Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused of running an $8 billion Ponzi scheme, and Tom Cash, former chief of DEA operations for South Florida. After leaving the DEA in 1994, Cash jumped to fancy private investigative firm Kroll as head of Latin American business. Two groups that hired Kroll to conduct due diligence on Stanford International Group are now crying foul, claiming the firm had a conflict of interest because it previously worked for Stanford’s companies.

From the lawsuit: “Kroll never disclosed Mr. Cash’s connection with Mr. Stanford and the obvious conflict that this relationship presented. Many of the warning signs related to Mr. Stanford’s political network on the island of Antigua and SIB [Stanford International Bank] would have been within Mr. Cash’s own personal knowledge, but Mr. Cash failed to provide this important information and instead highly praised Mr. Stanford and Stanford entities.”

We don’t get to hear Cash’s side of the story. He apparently resigned from Kroll last month and is unreachable in the South Pacific. However, the article quotes Miami defense lawyer Jane Moscowitz and former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey singing Cash’s praises.

As it happens, I know some folks who aren’t so fond of Mr. Cash. Earlier this year I quoted Cash in a Sun Sentinel article about the DEA moving its headquarters from Miami to the Weston. Cash thought it was pretty comical that his old agency was moving to the suburbs and predicted a possible backlash. “Most people do not believe we are desirable neighbors. We’re sort of next in line after pedophiles,” he said.

I thought it was a funny quote, but it didn’t make me any friends at the DEA. It turns out federal law enforcement agents don’t particularly like being compared to pedophiles. Lesson learned.