Houston's Ponzi-riffic Allen Stanford Is Indicted

Allen Stanford, the man who singlehandedly revived Houston’s fading Enron reputation for corporate scams (here’s our feature take on him) has finally been indicted.

A Houston grand jury indicted him on 21 charges of charged with 21 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Stanford is expected to appear before a federal judge today, The New York Times reports (with a headline describing him as a “Texas financier.”)

Stanford’s Houston lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, told the Times his man is innocent and that he surrendered himself yesterday “to some FBI agents who were hiding out in black SUV’s outside the residence where he was staying in Virginia.”

Stanford is really one eager-to-surrender sonuvabitch. In May he showed up at the federal courthouse in Houston looking to surrender to US Marshals and was turned away.

The US Attorney’s office in Houston adds:

Also charged in an indictment returned in Houston yesterday and unsealed
today was Laura Pendergest-Holt, 35, SFG’s chief investment officer;
Gilberto Lopez, 66, SFG’s chief accounting officer; Mark Kuhrt, 37,
SFG’s global controller; and Leroy King, 63, the former administrator
and CEO of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission. Stanford
was arrested in Virginia last night, and is scheduled to make an initial
appearance today in Richmond. Lopez and Kuhrt were arrested this
morning and will make initial appearances in Houston this afternoon.
Pendergest-Holt, who previously was indicted on obstruction-related
charges, will make her initial appearance on the charges unsealed today
in Houston in the near future.