''This thing with Stanford is bigger than Stanford,'' said Verlyn Georg, 43, a government worker. ``Barack Oabama is against offshore betting, offshore banking because he needs all the taxes for America. This isn't just about Stanford, this is about the whole Caribbean.''

U.S. CONCERNS

The U.S. government and Antigua have been embroiled in a contentious battle before the World Trade Organization for years over the island nation's online gaming business. As a senator, Obama was a lead sponsor of a bill calling for tighter controls on offshore tax havens.

''The repercussions are huge for the entire region,'' said Ron Maginley, a financial services expert. ``What happens when our system crashes? What happens when 2,000 workers are suddenly unemployed or when our currency pegged to the U.S. dollars collapses . . . and we start to starve in Antigua and Barbuda?''

Stanford has had a tepid relationship with the current Antiguan government. Until recently, he was involved in stalled negotiations on a $2.7 billion investment to develop a nearby island. Following the Labor Party's loss at the polls five years ago -- he contributed at least $1 million to the failed bid -- he moved to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Still, Antigua is where his name has become synonymous not just with banking, but with two airlines that he previously owned. One of them, Miramar-based Caribbean Sun, was used to shuttle in clients seeking to do business with his companies.

This former British colony is also where Stanford, who holds dual U.S.-Antiguan citizenship, was knighted two years ago amid some jeers from his detractors.

START IN MONTSERRAT

An investor who made his money in real estate in Texas in the early 1980s, Stanford set up business in the nearby British territory of Montserrat in the 1980s. He left there for Antigua after a dispute with the British government.

What he found in Antigua was more than white-powder beaches and a relaxed attitude. The government was eager to find a deep-pocket investor to help develop the island. It offered discounted land deals, development concessions and key opportunities. Stanford seized the opportunities that came along.

When a local bank went bankrupt, the government allowed Stanford to buy it. When the country got in trouble with the United States over its offshore financing law, it was Stanford who flew in a team of lawyers to help draft new legislation. And when the government needed financing -- whether for a new hospital or a political campaign -- Stanford cut the check.

''We gave him fairly good latitude,'' Bird, the former prime minister, told The Miami Herald in a rare interview. ``Our position was so long as there is no hanky-panky with what he's doing, why not accept the assistance in terms of developing the country. As far as I am concerned, I have no regrets with him helping us with the offshore financial services, building the buildings he has built, the Bank of Antigua and several other things he has done in Antigua and Barbuda.''

CRITICISM RAISED

But Antigua's willingness to give Stanford such latitude did not always sit well with the opposition, or with regular Antiguans, who criticized the land deals and the government's mounting debt to Stanford. By the time Bird's government was booted out of power five years ago, Stanford was owed more than $78 million.

It is unclear how much has been repaid. But as depositors made a run on Stanford's commercial bank this past week, it was yet another reminder of the billionaire's unyielding influence and the ongoing concerns that the probe could spark an economic crisis here.

A TIGHTROPE

The story of Stanford's towering presence in Antigua, business leaders say, is also a cautionary tale of the delicate tightrope that small-island states must walk when attracting foreign investors with deep pockets.

''The authorities need to learn from this experience and don't permit any one person or group to loom so large over the economy,'' said Everett Christian, the head of the local Chamber of Commerce and country manager for ABI Bank. ``You should not put any one person in a position where they can hold a nation ransom.''

DIFFERENT VIEWS

Business people and others who know Stanford give him mixed reviews. On the one hand, they applaud him for being the biggest private employer and say he pays well -- above six figures for some employees. But he is shrewd, they say, and is known to hire someone ``just to fire you.''

He is described as having a Trump-like penchant for self-promotion, someone who puts his brand on everything.

STANFORD'S FORTUNE

Forbes magazine estimates Stanford's fortune at $2 billion. How much of that is centered in Antigua is not clear.

And so, as the SEC sideshow sorts itself out, Antiguans wait and wonder, and entertain themselves by singing satirical songs about the tycoon in local jerk joints. Vicious screeds about the man fill airwaves.

''We will have quite a bit of PR to do. There is no doubt about it,'' Bird said. ``We will have to go and tell the world we did not enter into any hanky-panky with Mr. Stanford. We are disappointed with this situation.''

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