THE island appears to have escaped the fall-out of Sir Allen Stanford’s alleged investment fraud, according to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

The Texan billionaire has been accused by US watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission of an $8bn fraud.

It served Sir Allen civil legal papers at the end of last week after he had seemingly gone missing for at least 48 hours after it emerged he was likely to face charges, but as yet he has not been charged with any criminal violations.

‘We are not currently aware of any local exposure but we are monitoring the situation closely,’ said GFSC director-general Peter Neville (pictured).

He added, just as he did in December about the similar $50bn Bernard Madoff alleged fraud in the US, that it was unlikely that such an operation could be carried out from the island.

‘So far as the position in Guernsey is concerned, we have a good level of information on the types of business our licensees are engaged in and take firm action when there are breaches of regulatory requirements.

‘Because of the international nature of much of Guernsey’s finance business, we also work very closely with regulators elsewhere. However, as always, investors should make enquiries so that they understand financial products before deciding to invest in them.’