Dominica: Allen Stanford, the Texas banker and cricket aficionado, faces decades in prison after being convicted of running a $7bn Ponzi scheme and ordered to forfeit $330m in customer money, according to a Dominica News Online report.
A Texas jury of eight men and four women convicted Stanford on 13 of 14 counts of fraud, money laundering and obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation after a six-week trial. He has been held in a federal prison since his June 2009 arrest and will be sentenced on June 14.
The DNO report said that this week’s verdict closes a three-year chapter involving claims by Stanford that he suffered amnesia following a prison fight.
The jury also found that $330m held in offshore bank accounts, including one designated the “Baby Mama Trust” for a woman who had Stanford’s children, should be returned to investors. To date the thousands of investors have not received a penny.
Three former Stanford employees are set to go to trial for their alleged roles in the scheme later this year. A former Antiguan regulator has also been charged and is under house arrest on the island. The US is seeking extradition. All four have denied wrongdoing, the DNO report stated.
Prosecutors continue to investigate other ties to the fraud.
The Department of Justice is investigating whether Société Générale, the French Bank, performed adequate due diligence over the Stanford accounts or were active participants to the fraud, people familiar with the matter say. Société Générale has said it is co-operating with the investigation, the DNO concluded.
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