Financier Stanford indicted on mail, wire and securities fraud

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Billionaire financier Robert Allen Stanford has been indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud, actions that earned his company an estimated $7 billion, prosecutors said Friday.

Stanford, who ran Stanford Group Co., turned himself in to federal authorities in Virginia on Thursday night. He faces criminal charges for a long series of alleged frauds outlined in a 21-count indictment.

He has maintained his innocence.

Three other Stanford Group executives and a former Antiguan official also are charged in the indictment.

"Stanford and his co-defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud investors who purchased approximately $7 billion in certificates of deposit, CDs, administered by Stanford International Bank Ltd.," Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's criminal division, said Friday during a news conference in Washington.

Stanford International Bank Ltd. is an offshore bank on Antigua.

"Stanford and his co-defendants allegedly misused and misappropriated most of those investment assets, including diverting at least $1.6 billion into undisclosed personal loans to Stanford himself," Breuer said.

Charged along with Stanford are Stanford Group executives Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer, and Gilberto Lopez, the chief accounting officer; as well as Mark Kuhrt, who was the global controller for Stanford Financial Group Global Management, an affiliate of Stanford Group Co.

Leroy King, the former chief executive for Antigua's Financial Services Regulatory Commission, is also charged.

Stanford is scheduled to appear in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, at 3 p.m. Friday.

In a written statement, his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said Stanford "is confident that a fair jury will find him not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing."

All About Allen Stanford • Internal Revenue Service • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission • Antigua and Barbuda