Allen Stanford, the former Texas billionaire convicted of a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 110 years in prison by a U.S. federal judge on Thursday.
Stanford, who was found guilty of 13 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy by a Houston jury in March, used fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua to bilk thousands of investors out of their savings.
Stanford claimed he had the funds to pay his depositors, and that his financial empire was solvent until the Securities and Exchange Commission shut it down in 2009.
Prosecutors argued successfully at trial that Stanford skimmed much of the investors' money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
The government had recommended U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentence Stanford to the maximum 230 years in prison, among the longest white collar sentences in history.
Prosecutors also asked Hittner to order Stanford to forfeit $5.9 billion, which may be largely symbolic since most of the money is gone.
The 62-year-old Stanford plans to appeal.
0 comments