Ex-Stanford exec gets 3 years for role in $7B swindle

A top executive in the now-defunct empire of disgraced Texas financier R. Allen Stanford was sentenced to three years in prison today for her role in helping the once jet-setting businessman bilk investors out of more than $7 billion in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. Former Stanford Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt’s sentence was part of a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors. She had pleaded guilty in June to one count of obstruction of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proceeding in exchange for the sentence. After U.S. District Judge David Hittner handed down the sentence, he revoked Pendergest-Holt’s bond and she was taken into custody. She waved to her husband Jim Holt before she was put in handcuffs and taken from the courtroom by federal marshals. A tearful Pendergest-Holt told Hittner prior to sentencing that she was sorry for putting her trust in Stanford and others in his financial empire, including the former chief financial officer, James M. Davis, who also has pleaded guilty and faces up to 30 years in prison. “I’m sorry I was so trusting in people who didn’t deserve my trust, and my trusting them caused harm in others. I apologize greatly,” the 38-year-old from Baldwyn, Miss., said. Read the full story here.