Allen Stanford to serve 110 years jail for ponzi scheme
R. Allen Stanford, once considered the wealthiest man in America, was sentenced Thursday by US District Judge David Hittner to 110 years in prison for cheating investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history.
The sentence was handed down after the court heard Stanford, and two investors described how the ponzi scheme had affected their lives.
In March, a Houston jury convicted Stanford on all but one of 14 fraud-related counts and cleared the way for U.S. authorities to seize millions from Stanford's bank accounts.
Stanford's attorneys had argued that he was a legitimate businessman.
But prosecutors, who had asked for a maximum possible sentence of 230 years in prison, convinced the jury that Stanford organized a 20-year scheme that siphoned billions through the sale of certificates of deposit from his Caribbean bank to fleece thousands of investors in scores of countries.
Prosecutors alleged that instead of putting the money collected from over 21,000 investors through the sale of the certificates of deposit (CDs) from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua in safe assets, Stanford used it to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for an opulent lifestyle of yachts and private jets.
Before the judge passed the sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Stellmach told the court, "Allen Stanford doesn't deserve anyone's sympathy and he doesn't deserve your honor's mercy."
Stanford's convictions on conspiracy, wire and mail fraud charges followed a seven-week trial.
Stanford's attorneys had asked for a maximum of 44 months, a sentence he could have completed within about eight months as he has been jailed since his arrest in June 2009.
In a rambling 40 minute statement ahead of the sentencing, 62-year-old Stanford denied having done anything wrong and instead alleged to him being made a scapegoat. He blamed the federal government and a US appointed receiver for preventing him from helping the investors get back any of their investments as they had seized his companies, their assets and accounts.
"I'm not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy," Stanford told Hittner. "I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn't defraud anybody."
Stanford was once estimated to be worth over $2 billion with his financial empire stretching across the Americas.
The jury that convicted Stanford also cleared the way for U.S. authorities to seek access to an estimated $330 million in stolen investor funds parked in frozen foreign bank accounts in Canada, England and Switzerland.
But it is doubtful if the government will be able to recover the money in the near future given the number of investors involved.
The financier's trial was delayed after he was declared incompetent in January 2011 due to an anti-anxiety drug addiction he developed in jail. He underwent treatment and was declared fit for trial in December.
Stanford and his three former executives also are fighting a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accusing them of fraud. The trial is scheduled for September. A former Antiguan financial regulator has been indicted and awaits extradition to the U.S.
Source: United States News.Net
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