Laura Pendergest-Holt first arrest in the $8 billion Stanford Financial Group fraud investigation
The FBI made the first arrest in the $8 billion Stanford Financial Group fraud investigation on Thursday, detaining chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt on federal obstruction charges.The U.S. Justice Department said Pendergest-Holt was to make an initial court appearance before a U.S. magistrate in Houston on Friday after her arrest by FBI agents. The federal criminal probe began in June 2008.The break could signify that prosecutors are closing in on the group's chairman, Allen Stanford, a Texas billionaire with dual U.S. and Antigua Barbuda citizenship who has been a prominent sponsor of cricket, golf, tennis and polo events.Stanford is already facing civil charges accusing him of orchestrating a "massive" fraud in the sales of $8 billion in high-interest certificates of deposit issued by the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
The Justice Department said Pendergest-Holt concealed her role in and familiarity with the Antigua bank's investments when Securities and Exchange Commission investigators questioned her earlier in February.
The SEC filed civil charges against Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and chief financial officer Jim Davis on Feb. 17. A court-appointed receiver took control of Stanford's assets.In all, Stanford claimed to oversee about $50 billion in assets but the criminal complaint quoted a company lawyer as saying the SEC told him it was only interested in the certificates of deposit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment