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Whistle-blower alleged that Stanford International Bank was running a Ponzi scheme and said he was fired from his job because he raised concerns about the firm's practices.

02/27/09 - (silive.com) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The former head of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce was among the first to blow the whistle on a Texas businessman accused of an $8 billion fraud whose victims include several players for the Yankees and Mets.

Lawrence De Maria, a former West Brighton resident, Advance reporter and head of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, charged in a 2006 lawsuit that billionaire R. Allen Stanford's company was violating laws and running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors.

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission made similar charges in the civil action it brought against Stanford last week. The scandal has affected Yankees Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady, both of whom invested with Stanford and saw their assets frozen as part of the investigation. Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey has said he's experiencing similar cash-flow problems after investing with Stanford's companies.

But De Maria seemed to spot trouble shortly after going to work as a press writer for Stanford in 2003, not long after he'd left his post as president and CEO of the Staten Island Chamber.

A former business journalist who also worked for The New York Times and Forbes, De Maria was reportedly hired by Stanford to edit the firm's corporate magazine.

In a 2006 wrongful dismissal lawsuit, he alleged the company was running a Ponzi scheme and said he was fired from his job because he raised concerns about the firm's practices.

Reached by phone yesterday at his home in Naples, Fla., De Maria said he could not discuss the lawsuit or the terms of his 2007 settlement with Stanford.

He said he's working again as a writer and recently finished a novel. The unpublished thriller is with a New York agent, he said. De Maria and his wife returned to Staten Island last June, when his son won an award in the Staten Island Film Festival.

According to a report in Business Week, De Maria charged in the 2006 lawsuit that the more questions he asked about Stanford's company, the more "marginalized" he became.

Ironically, it was Stanford who ran an extensive background check on De Maria before hiring him in 2003, when an investigator interviewed Chamber board members about De Maria.

De Maria went to work for the Chamber in 1997 but left on rocky terms in 2003, after filing a $1 million breach of contract suit against that organization. He landed at Stanford shortly thereafter.

At the time, De Maria told the Advance he had been approached by a major financial services company about taking a job in Miami but turned it down because the Chamber had extended his contract. One source said yesterday that the firm was Stanford.

De Maria and the Staten Island Chamber settled the suit in December 2004; the terms were confidential. De Maria apparently got the job with Stanford, even after initially turning it down.

Joe Madory, the former chairman of the Staten Island Chamber who once met Allen Stanford while vacationing in the Caribbean, said he was shocked to hear the big name in finance was charged with a big scam.

Madory, a cricket fan, said Stanford was one of the biggest boosters of West Indian cricket. Last fall, Stanford put up $20 million for one match in Antigua, where he holds citizenship and operates a bank on the Caribbean island.

"He put up $20 million in November for the winner of one cricket match. It was winner take all. That sort of explains the man," said Madory.

But Madory wasn't surprised the former Chamber executive had spotted problems while working for Stanford.

"Larry was an astute guy," he said.