The Story Within the Story
A hidden tale about two whistleblowers who upended Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme and guided the SEC through the investigation to help bring down the Stanford empire.
Click above to view clips from the documentary
The Documentary
“The Man Who Bought Cricket” is a British-made documentary featuring Allen Stanford and his attempt to dominate the world of cricket in 2008. Meanwhile, the Stanford Financial Group had been running the second largest Ponzi scheme in modern history. A year later in 2009, Stanford’s offices were raided by the FBI. Stanford is now serving a 110-year sentence at a U.S. prison facility in Florida.
The story within this story is about the two financial advisors formerly employed at Stanford — Charlie Rawl and Mark Tidwell — who guided the Securities and Exchange Commission through the investigation that eventually brought down Stanford and his empire.
They resigned from Stanford in December 2007 to move their clients to safety, triggering an epic legal battle with Stanford, who fought fiercely to prevent moving client money out and to retaliate for blowing the whistle.
What did it feel like for Charlie and Mark to risk everything helping the SEC and FBI document the fraud and build an actionable case against Stanford?
This documentary appeared on Britain’s Sky TV in three episodes during 2022. At this time, it is not available for streaming in the United States.
These four clips are viewable courtesy of and with the kind permission of South Shore Productions, LTD.
It was a very difficult veil to pierce, getting into that company.
Vanessa Walther
Special Agent, FBI
Charlie and Mark…had the courage to leave the company because they couldn’t get answers to their own questions.
We needed Mark and Charlie to come forward.
Kevin Edmundson
SEC Enforcement Division
All we wanted to do was to leave that place. Get out of there and get our clients out, safe and sound. We needed to get the truth out.
Charlie Rawl
Image of SEC Building courtesy of South Shore Productions, LTD