A letter being circulated among former Stanford Financial employees and purportedly written by the mother of Allen Stanford’s fiancee pins the blame for the financial tycoon’s problems on his former college roommate, James Davis.
The Flyer and other media organizations received copies of the letter Wednesday through former Stanford employees. It was written Monday by a person identifying themself as Kathy Stoelker, mother of Andrea Stoelker. The Flyer emailed “Kathy Stoelker” asking for an interview or some proof of identity and received another email and a telephone call from Kathy Stoelker in northern Virginia.
“I did write the letter and I am Andrea Stoelker’s mother,” she said. “She is Allen’s fiancee and also the chief operating officer for the Sticky Wicket, the Pavilion, and the Antigua Athletic Club.
“I would be happy to send you a copy of her birth certificate to verify that I am her mother — unfortunately, that too has been seized by the receiver.”
In the letter circulating among former Stanford employees in Memphis and other cities, Stoelker, 58 years old, claims Stanford “was at my house during the ‘reported’ manhunt … I can assure you there was no manhunt except by the media.”
Stoelker said she wrote the letter to let former employees know that Stanford “intends to fight but he has been advised by attorneys to be silent.” She said his attorneys were aware of her letter.
The letter says “there is no Ponzi scheme,” as the Securities Exchange Commission alleged.
“This will be verified in the days ahead. Allen’s guilt is that of trusting Jim Davis to run the Financial Services Division. This awareness has been devastating to Allen as their friendship began when they were in college and he truly trusted this ‘evil’ man.”
In the telephone interview, Stoelker said she characterized Davis as “evil” in quotation marks because former employees called him that in emails sent to her.
Davis, a native of Baldwyn, Mississippi, worked in the Crescent Center in East Memphis. He and Stanford have been named in federal civil complaints but not criminal complaints. Their associate, Laura Pendergest Holt, has been charged criminally.
