Stanford Officer to Plead Guilty

	June 18, 2012 By VANESSA O'CONNELL Stanford Financial Group's top investment executive, Laura Pendergest-Holt, is expected to plead guilty to obstruction of justice Thursday for her alleged role in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme that was among the largest frauds in U.S. history, a person familiar with the case said. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined comment. The expected plea by Ms. Pendergest-Holt, Stanford's chief investment officer, follows the sentencing last week of convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford to 110 years in prison. That punishment amounts to a life sentence for Mr. Stanford, 62 years old, who for years enjoyed the life of a billionaire aboard jets, yachts and in homes around the globe. He remains in federal custody until the U.S. Bureau of Prisons decides where he will serve the time.
Laura Pendergest-Holt
A Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas had alleged that Ms. Pendergest-Holt misled Securities and Exchange Commission investigators who took her testimony in the probe of alleged fraud at Stanford International Bank, Mr. Stanford's Antigua-based offshore bank. Ms. Pendergest-Holt was scheduled to go on trial in September. An obstruction charge can carry a three-year sentence.

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Stanford sentenced to 110 years over Ponzi scheme

June 14, 2012
By The Wall Street Journal

R. Allen Stanford, the once-highflying financier convicted of masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced Thursday to 110 years in federal prison.

The punishment amounts to an effective life sentence for Stanford, who is 62 years old and used to live extravagantly aboard yachts, jets and homes around the world.

"I didn't run a Ponzi scheme, I didn't defraud anybody and there was never any intent to defraud anybody," Stanford, wearing a green prison jumpsuit, told US District Court Judge David Hittner before he was sentenced.

In a rambling statement, marked with long pauses as he choked up and wiped away tears, Stanford accused the government of using "Gestapo tactics" and blamed it for the billions of dollars in losses to his investors.

Stanford's sentence was 40 years less than the prison term given to Bernard Madoff, but 100 years more than his lawyers had asked for.

The sentence ends the three-year criminal prosecution of Stanford, who in March was convicted by a federal jury on 13 of 14 counts including fraud, obstructing investigators and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Though investors continue to seek hundreds of millions of dollars from Stanford in a civil proceeding, the end of the criminal case closes a chapter on one of the most flamboyant figures in the annals of white-collar crime.

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