A federal decide ordered an finish to the Securities and Trade Fee’s 16-year-old lawsuit over Allen Stanford’s $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme, directing the financier and two former colleagues to pay sums that may go largely uncollected.
In a choice on Wednesday, Chief Choose David Godbey of the Dallas federal courtroom imposed a $5.9 billion civil nice on Stanford, who’s serving a 110-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2012 of defrauding about 18,000 traders.
Godbey ordered Stanford Monetary Group’s former chief monetary officer James Davis to pay $17.66 million, together with a $5 million nice, and former chief accounting officer Gilberto Lopez to pay $3.42 million over their roles within the fraud.
Authorities stated Stanford bought fraudulent high-yielding certificates of deposit via his Antigua-based Stanford Worldwide Financial institution throughout a two-decade fraud, and used investor cash to make dangerous investments and fund a lavish life-style.
The decide additionally deemed billions of {dollars} owed by numerous Stanford entities happy by court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey’s restoration of greater than $2.5 billion for fraud victims, together with $1.2 billion from Toronto-Dominion Financial institution.
Godbey stated there was “no just reason for delay” in ordering the funds and shutting the case.
As soon as thought-about a billionaire, Stanford was declared indigent in 2010. Now 74, he’s ineligible for launch from jail till 2103.
Legal professionals for Davis and Lopez didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. An SEC spokesperson declined to remark.
Davis was the prime authorities witness at Stanford’s trial, testified towards his former faculty roommate, and was sentenced in 2013 to 5 years in jail. Lopez was convicted individually, and sentenced in 2013 to twenty years in jail.
The SEC sued Stanford in Feb. 2009, two months after the late swindler Bernard Madoff was criminally charged with operating a a lot bigger Ponzi scheme.
