Stanford Ponzi scheme disbursement approved

A federal judge in Dallas, Texas, has approved an interim plan that distributes some US$55 million in assets to bilked investors in a failed Ponzi scheme run by disgraced former Texas financier R. Allen Stanford.

The plan submitted by court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey and approved last Thursday, May 30, by US District Judge David Godbey amounts to only one per cent of the US$5.1 billion in claims from investors.

Stanford was convicted last year on 13 fraud counts related to the estimated US$7 billion scheme and was sentenced to 110 years in prison.

He contended he made money for the investors who bought certificates of deposit from his Caribbean bank.

But federal prosecutors showed, and a Houston jury agreed, that Stanford spent his investors' money on failed businesses and a lavish lifestyle.

- AP