More trouble for the employees of Stanford Financial Group. The troubled firm's court-appointed receiver told the company's roughly 3,000 employees they won't receive their regularly scheduled paychecks Friday, citing "extraordinary financial circumstances.''
The receiver will make a ''detailed and substantive announcement'' about the status of the Houston-based company's payroll early next week, according to a statement posted Thursday on the official receivership Web site.
Continue reading below
Ralph Janvey, a Dallas securities lawyer, was appointed receiver by
a judge on Feb. 17, the day the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
sued Houston billionaire R. Allen Stanford and three of his firms for
allegedly running an $8 billion fraud through Antigua-based Stanford
International Bank.
Meanwhile, Stanford's chief investment officer, Laura
Pendergest-Holt, was arrested Thursday on a charge of obstructing an
investigation and appeared Friday in federal court in Houston where a
federal magistrate set her bail at $300,000. Pendergest-Holt will have
to post $30,000 cash and wear an ankle monitor as she heads to Dallas
for more hearings in her case. The Department of Justice asked for bail
of $1 million, but since Pendergest-Holt's assets were frozen her
attorney asked for a lesser bond, according to The Associated Press. - Donna Block
See letter from Stanford receiver
