DAVID VITTER WASHINGTON, 0. en Wnited States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 weg December 19, 2014 Angela Shaw Director and Founder Stanford Victims Coalition Dear Ms. Shaw: wanted to give an update to your members on where things stand. As a member of the United States Senate, I continue to fight on behalf of thousands of innocent Americans who lost their hard-earned life savings in the Allen Stanford Ponzi schemes. The losses from this horrible fraud has been catastrophic. In Louisiana alone, my constituents lost over half a billion dollars. In the new Congress, a top priority of mine will continue to be fighting for Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) nominees who work for investors rather than Wall Street and pushing my legislation to fix to hold SIPC accountable. Ithas been six years since these innocent, middle-class investors’ lives were ripped apart by criminals. In addition to being victimized by unprecedented financial crimes, these hard working Americans have been ruthlessly harmed by the actions of SIPC a rogue organization ‘whose behavior and tactic appear to be that of financial self-interest rather than fulfilling their investor protection mandate SIPC has not only denied all Stanford victims the basic Congressionally-created customer protections, but it also defied its own government authority when it challenged an SEC directive to compensate Stanford victims. The SEC ultimately had to file an unprecedented Enforcement Action against SIPC for its failure to discharge its obligations under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) and spend the last three years litigating against SIPC. In defending its decision to defy the SEC, SIPC spent millions of dollars on legal fees. ‘Those funds should have gone toward fulfilling SIPC’s mandate to protect and compensate investors who entrust their savings to a registered broker dealer. SIPC even launched a public relations campaign to disseminate false information regarding the Stanford case, and coerced the SEC into agreeing to false stipulations that did not apply to any of the Stanford victims I've met ‘with over the years. Those stipulations caused the SEC to lose its fight to force an entity under its direct supervision to comply with a statute for which the SEC has legislative authority The only people SIPC apparently answers to is Wall Street. It is unconscionable to be me that SIPC decided not compensate Stanford customers whose savings were stolen by a SIPC- ‘member brokerage firm. It is even more unbelievable that SIPC convinced the SEC to stipulate to false circumstances that were ultimately used by the courts to side with them. IA. SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA‘The fight, though, is not lost. I have worked and will continue to work to push SIPC to revisit its decision not to compensate victims of the Stanford Ponzi scheme. I have provided clear evidence to SIPC that they never considered, and because there was a clear directive by the SEC to compensate the victims, SIPC still needs to revisit the case. I have successfully blocked the President’s nominees to SIPC this year because they were beholden to Wall Street instead of investors, Rest assured, I will continue to urge the President different SIPC Board members who are investor advocates rather than more Wall Street cronies when he makes new nominations next year. Finally, with Republicans gaining the Majority in the Senate and strengthening our ‘Majority in the House of Representatives, a bipartisan legislative solution is within our grasp and | intend to see that itis gets a vote on the Senate floor in 2015. While I am extremely frustrated that my bipartisan bill, the “Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act of 2013” did not advance in this Congressional session, I am optimistic on it the progress we have ‘made in both the Senate and the House, where the companion bill garnered broad support from 56 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle and from more than 20 states. The Stanford Ponzi scheme devastated thousands of families across the country, including many Louisianians who invested their hard-earned savings in good faith that it would be there for them when they retire. People who invest their money with a protected investment firm need to have the confidence that our financial system won't allow for this type of fraud. The bill I’ve proposed with Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will fix a key problem we've seen with the system which currently allows SIPC’s Wall Street members to benefit economically from the SIPC guarantee that has served only to deceive other investors who will not know until s too late that their savings are in fact not protected by SIPC, 1am also extremely disappointed the SEC failed to adequately represent the customers of SIPC-member Stanford Group Company by stipulating to factually incorrect terms and therefore not prevailing in its litigation against SIPC. But the fight is not over, and getting Stanford victims the compensation they deserve will be a top priority in the first few months of the new Congress. Sincerely, David Vitter United States Senate