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 The FBI made its first arrest in the $8 billion Stanford Financial
Group fraud investigation Thursday, detaining chief investment officer
Laura Pendergest-Holt on federal obstruction charges.The Justice Department said late Thursday that Pendergest-Holt was to make an initial court appearance Friday before a magistrate in Houston. The complaint against Pendergest-Holt alleges that she made several misrepresentations to the Securities and Exchange Commission during a meeting on Feb. 10 about what she knew regarding a scheme to defraud investors and account holders of billions of dollars in deposits.
The
complaint also says the Stanford's number three failed to tell the
truth on several occasions during the course of the investigation.
It appears that Pendergest-Holt met in February with several Stanford Financial Group corporate officers in Miami to prepare for her upcoming testimony the week before she was scheduled to testify before the SEC, according to the complaint. She allegedly discussed the bank's "Tier III" portfolio, using a pie chart that showed a $1.6 billion loan to a shareholder. The following week, she failed to reveal she met with SFG corporate officers in Miami and made several affirmative misrepresentations under oath in order to obstruct the investigation. She also denied she was a member of Stanford International Bank's limited investment committee, and failed to reveal the extent of what she knew about the bank's Tier III portfolio, the complaint alleges. In a second interview, on Feb. 17, she reiterated that she knew nothing of the portfolio, the complaint alleges. The document filed with the court, however, confirms that the FBI and IRS have been actively conducting a criminal investigation of Stanford's dealings since 2008. The affidavit says: Since June of 2008, I and others on behalf of the FBI, special agents with the Internal Revenue Service, and postal inspectors have been conducting an investigation into allegations that executives of Stanford Financial Group ... have defrauded investors and account-holders of more than $8 billion in deposits," said FBI agent Vanessa Walther in an affidavit filed with the charges against Pendergest-Holt. - Donna Block See the criminal complaint against Pendergest Holt (pdf) Categories Deal Video
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