Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, whose sprawling banking empire collapsed this year, was indicted Friday for what prosecutors call a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors.
Justice Department officials announced the fraud charges against Stanford, who ran Stanford Financial Group, and six others at a news conference Friday. Also indicted were executives of the company and a former Antiguan bank regulator.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, in court papers Friday, offered new details about the alleged Ponzi scheme, including the bribing of a regulator to turn a blind eye. The agency’s enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, said investigators have built “an impressive criminal case from the rubble of this massive fraud.”
If convicted of all charges in the 21-count indictment, Stanford could face as much as 250 years in prison, officials said.
Dick DeGuerin, Stanford’s lawyer, said in a written statement that Stanford was “confident that a fair jury will find him not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.”
The indictment unsealed Friday in Houston charged Stanford and other executives at his firm “would cause the movement of millions of dollars of fraudulently obtained investors’ funds from and among bank accounts.”
The firm would give money to some investors “to perpetuate the false appearance that (Stanford’s business) was financially sound,” according to the indictment.
Court papers charge Stanford and top executives orchestrated a massive fraud by advising clients to buy certificates of deposit from the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
Stanford has been working since February to challenge what his attorney called “the false accusations against him.” DeGuerin said that rather than resulting from fraud or a Ponzi scheme, “the present insolvency of the Stanford Companies was caused by the SEC heavy-handed actions, which have destroyed and continue to destroy much of the value” of the companies and their investors.
Stanford, in FBI custody after surrendering Thursday, was to appear in federal…