Allen Stanford Guilty

Allen Stanford found guilty in $7bn Ponzi scheme Stanford had blamed a former chief financial officer Continue reading the main story
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Allen Stanford fit to stand trial

Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford has been found guilty by a court in Houston, Texas, of running a $7bn Ponzi scheme.

Stanford, 61, was convicted on 13 of the 14 charges.

He had pleaded not guilty to defrauding some 30,000 investors with bogus investments through his Stanford International Bank.

Prosecutors said he issued fraudulent certificates of deposit through the offshore bank in Antigua.

The jury of eight men and four women found him not guilty of one charge of wire fraud.

Stanford faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for the most serious charge. However, the judge will have to decide whether the sentences should run consecutively.

Stanford's defence was based on blaming a former chief financial officer, James Davis, and arguing that most of the money was lost by court-appointed receivers following the bank's seizure.

Prosecutors said Stanford's bogus certificates of deposits had promised artificially high returns to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Stanford was the organiser of the money-spinning Stanford Twenty20 Cricket tournament in the West Indies in 2008.

Forbes Magazine listed him as the 605th richest man in the world in 2006.

He has spent three years in detention after being denied bail.