Stanford CIO indicted as CFO spills the beans

Stanford CIO indicted as CFO spills the beans

Stanford Financial Group's chief investment officer charged while CFO co-operates with the SEC

The chief investment officer of banking and financial services company
Stanford Financial Group was charged by a federal grand jury earlier this week
for charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The chief financial officer James Davis, chairman Allen Stanford and chief
investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt had charges of fraud made against them
by the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year,
Chron.com
reported.

The fraud case is over a Ponzi scheme, an operation that pays investors from
their own money rather than from an actual profit, that is alleged to have taken
place at Stanford.

Davis is said to be co-operating with investigators while Stanford has said
he expects to be indicted. Pendergest-Holt was arrested in February and given a
$300,000 (£196,000) bail. She has been charged for giving false information
regarding the Ponzi scheme to investigators. She alleged that she didn’t know
the value of some of the assets at Stanford Financial Group.

Dan Cogdell, Pendergest-Holt’s legal representative, said: ‘While being
indicted is never a good day for any defendant, we are very confident that the
facts will defeat this indictment.

‘The fact that we are the sole defendant charged will make it easier for the
jury to focus on Laura and only Laura.’

Further reading:

Auditors to be enlisted by SEC for compliance work

Live and learn: is history repeating itself?

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