$1.8M in Stanford campaign donations not returned

More than 90 percent of $1.9 million in political contributions made by jailed Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford hasn't been returned by their recipients, a court official said.

Court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey, who was placed in charge of Stanford's business empire following a federal lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he wrote every recipient about 11 months ago. Janvey's letter asked for the return of political donations from Stanford, explaining that the money was tainted by the jailed billionaire's alleged wrongdoing in what the government says was a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

The largest unreturned contributions were $950,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $238,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Neither committee immediately responded to messages left by The Associated Press.

The SEC accuses Stanford of promising inflated returns to about 28,000 investors on certificates of deposit at his Antiguan bank. The SEC also accuses him of skimming more than $1 billion to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Stanford, who denies the allegations, remains jailed in the Houston area on similar criminal charges.

Janvey is trying to recover the contributions so that he can return them to the allegedly defrauded investors.

Other six-figure unreturned contributions went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($202,000) and the Republican National Committee ($128,500). The Democratic committee did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and the press office at the Republican National Committee was not accepting voicemail messages.

About $87,800 in contributions were returned as of Jan. 31, according to a list on Janvey's Web site. Two groups affiliated with Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, returned more than $27,000. The group Shelby for US Senate, affiliated with Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, returned $14,000.