Stanford Bank and Stanford Casa de Valores were acquired by a select and well-know group of Panamanian businessmen and a joint venture affiliate of an Australian reinsurance company (QBE del Istmo). ARIFA acted as counsel to Strategic Investors Group Inc. in connection with the acquisition of the Panamanian business community of Stanford Bank (Panama), S.A. and its broker-dealer affiliate. The transaction included numerous meetings, and cooperation with both the Superintendent of Bank and the National Securities Commission, in order to restructure both the bank and its affiliate broker-dealer operations. The restructuring was needed to successfully lift the companies out of their respective reorganization proceedings and restore their business to normal banking and broker-dealer operations. After more than a year of multi-jurisdictional negotiations that included the Texas court-appointed Receiver, as well as numerous Panamanian, US, UK, Swiss, Peruvian and Ecuadorean private and public entities, the account holders were be able to recoup 100% of their deposits and interests, totalling more than US$167 million.

It was the first time in Panama that a bank emerged from reorganization under the new Panamanian banking law after having been intervened by the Superintendency of Banks and closed for well over a calendar year. Moreover, all account holders and investors of the bank and its broker-dealer affiliate have regained their deposits, interests and investments in full.