SEC charges former Stanford Group executives

U.S. securities regulators have charged former officials of Stanford Group Co. for their role in the demise of the brokerage and bank controlled by Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. Reuters reports former Stanford Group Co. president Daniel Bogar, former compliance officer Bernerd Young, and Jason Green—who oversaw parts of the private client group at Stanford—are charged with aiding in the fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that the three executives knew or should have known that offering documents in connection to certificates of deposits sold by Stanford International Bank were false or misleading. Instead, the SEC charges, they encouraged their colleagues to use the incomplete offering documents to help sell the CDs. In a statement, Green’s lawyers, John Kincade and George Freeman, say that Green had no knowledge of the fraud. “We look forward to the opportunity to clear Mr. Green’s name, and we are confident we will succeed,” they say. Lawyers for Bogar and Young did not immediately respond to messages from Reuters seeking comment. Allen Stanford was sentenced in June to 110 years in prison for bilking investors with fraudulent CDs by Stanford International Bank, his bank in Antigua. Read the full story here.