HOUSTON — Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he swindled investors out of $7 billion as part of a massive investment scam.
Stanford entered his plea during his arraignment in federal court. The financier was indicted on charges that his international banking empire was really just a Ponzi scheme.
Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilberto Lopez and Mark Kuhrt, three executives with the now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group who were indicted along with their former boss, also entered not guilty pleas.
At a bond hearing shortly after the executives’ arraignment, prosecutors argued Stanford should be held without bond as he awaits trial on fraud charges because he might have access to billions of dollars in secret funds.
Prosecutor Paul Pelletier said investigators found a secret Swiss account Stanford controlled that was drained of more than $100 million in December 2008.
Jeffrey Ferguson, a forensic examiner hired to review the records of Stanford Financial Group and its affiliated bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua, testified nearly $1.2 billion of the $7 billion Stanford and his co-defendants are accused of bilking from investors can’t be accounted for.
In court documents filed Thursday, prosecutors also said Stanford faces a potential life sentence, has access to a private jet and has an international network of wealthy acquaintances who would help him, including one who recently agreed to give him $36,000 to pay his lease on a Houston apartment for a year.
Dick DeGuerin, Stanford’s attorney, argued in court documents that Stanford is not a flight risk and highlighted his charity efforts, including his work with a foundation for single mothers in Antigua as examples of his strong character.
by the associated press
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