Thomas Raffanello, Stanford Financial Group’s former global security director, pleaded not guilty today to charges that he shredded documents in violation of a court order to preserve them for a federal investigation. Raffanello is a former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami office.
As previously discussed here, Raffanello left the DEA five years ago to become Stanford’s local security chief. He is charged with “ordering workers to destroy thousands of documents just days after government agents shut down the banking empire in a massive fraud case.” The records were allegedly hauled away from the company’s security bunker in Fort Lauderdale.
Bloomberg reports that Raffanello’s lawyer, Richard Sharpstein, stated in an interview today that “the case is a slap in the face to his otherwise stellar career. It’s no secret he went voluntarily to the FBI without a lawyer to explain the circumstances of shredding documents.” Sharpstein added that “none are considered mildly relevant to the investigation.”
