Allen Stanford Indies all-star XI, with a total prize fund of £12.27 million (US$20 million) to be awarded to the team that won the Championship. It was the largest prize ever offered to a team for a single tournament. This was in jeopardy after a row with Digicel, the sponsors of the West Indies cricket team, who were unhappy about sponsorship of the event. Eventually, the dispute was sorted out and the championship was won by Stanford Superstars, who defeated the England team by 10 wickets. On February 17, 2009, when news of the fraud investigation became public, the ECB and WICB
Allen Stanford leaked cable message from the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas reported as early as 2006 that companies under Stanford's control were "rumored to engage in bribery, money laundering, and political manipulation". The U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas at the time was reported to have "managed to stay out of any one-on-one photos with Stanford" during a charity breakfast event. Federal agents raided the offices of Stanford Financial on February 17, 2009, and treated it as "a kind of crime scene—cautioning people not to leave fingerprints". The SEC charged Stanford with "massive ongoing fraud" centered on an eight-billion-dollar investment scheme. Stanford's