Allen Stanford Gets 110-Year Sentence

Financier Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in prison after he was convicted of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme involving certificates of deposit.
Stanford was convicted in March on 13 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud, obstruction and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Stanford founded the Houston-based Stanford Financial Group and sold certificates of deposit in an offshore Antiguan bank that he controlled. Only four years ago, Stanford landed a spot on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $2.2 billion. At his trial, however, he was declared indigent after prosecutors froze his funds.

Before U.S. District Judge David Hittner pronounced sentence in a Houston federal court Thursday, Stanford insisted, “I didn’t run a Ponzi scheme, I didn’t defraud anybody, and there was never any intent to defraud anybody,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Stanford was arrested in 2009 and accused of telling investors their money would be used for buying stocks and bonds and instead spending much of the money on his real estate holdings and businesses.

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