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Victims of Stanford Financial Ponzi scheme speak out in Mississippi after discovering certificates of deposit they invested in don't exist.

10/06/09 - (Jackson, Miss.) Hundreds of Mississippians who fell victim to a financial scheme joined a hearing Monday to figure out how to keep this from happening again.

Many of the people in a crowd that gathered Monday in Jackson all fell victim to a Ponzi scheme.

It appears that in the end, there will be a penny, maybe two pennies, on the dollar for distribution to the victims.

They're just some of the thousands of Mississippians who invested with Stanford Financial, then found out the certificates of deposit they invested in don't exist.

"You've looked up everything you could look up; you did everything you could do," said Mark Shapley, one of thousands of victims looking for answers.

"There were no red flags anywhere in this deal, nothing derogatory about Stanford in anything," said victim, Dr. John Wade.

The Stanford scheme has caused him to avoid investing.

"Get a bigger mattress. I'm putting everything in the mattress from here on out," said Wade.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and other officials are looking for answers, too.

"We should provide insurance coverage up to an amount. The problem is that they have to tax the brokers to pay for that," Hosemann said.

Hosemann wants Congress to allow states to review private securities.

"What we're trying to do is continue to build momentum for change where state regulators can again look at private placement," said the secretary.

R. Allen Stanford and others are accused of convincing clients to invest over seven billion dollars in fictitious CDs, leaving those who fell victim without that money and without closure.

Hosemann's office plans to write a report based on the hearing and letters from the Stanford victims.

He said he hopes the report will be used to convince congress to make changes to the regulatory system.

http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/63605372.html