MSNBC – On the streets of Antigua, Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is a controversial figure. Some embrace him while others deride him as a modern-day colonialist.

But nearly all say they fear a U.S. investigation into the tycoon’s financial empire and Antigua-based offshore bank could damage the Caribbean island where Stanford is a household name, its biggest private employer and powerful business force.

"He’s providing jobs. He’s good for the economy. If he’s in trouble, that’s bad for us all," said George Green, manager of Cool Down Cafe, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on a narrow street in St. John, the island’s capital.

Green’s comment was echoed across the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda on Monday as news spread of a deepening probe into Stanford’s $50 billion Houston-based investment operation, Stanford Group Co, and its Antigua-based affiliate, Stanford International Bank.

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guardian.co.uk – Secretive hedge fund barons, blamed by many for undermining Britain’s financial stability, will be unmasked on Tuesday when they are forced into the public spotlight by the powerful Treasury select committee.

As suggestions grow that hedge funds have made huge sums shorting UK bank stocks and sterling, the billionaire Chris Hohn and Liberal Democrat-supporting tycoon Paul Marshall will be quizzed on whether the predicted decimation of hedge funds as a result of the financial crisis could destabilise the global economic system further.

Hedge fund bosses will argue that they manage "only" £1.3 trillion of cash, which is less than a large fund manager, and that not one hedge fund has received a public bail-out. In addition, of the 150 bans or censures levelled by the Financial Services Authority since 2005, only two have involved hedge funds. They will also say that there have been numerous examples of hedge funds shorting sub-prime assets ahead of the credit crunch.

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