Former chief of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission in Antigua and Barbuda, Leroy King made his first appearance in a Texas court on Tuesday.
A media release from the United States Department of Justice on Tuesday announced Trial Attorney Brittain Shaw of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney and John Pearson of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.
King is the only remaining defendant in a $7 billion investment fraud scheme involving Stanford International Bank. He was extradited to the United States last week.
King, of Dickerson Bay, Antigua, had been a fugitive since 2009. He and R. Allen Stanford, the former chairman of the bank’s board of directors, were charged in the scheme.
King, 74, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; seven counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. He was also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
King’s indictment alleges he accepted more than $100,000 in bribes from Stanford in exchange for ignoring the actual value of the bank’s assets, the news release said. Authorities believe he also assisted Stanford and others in obstructing the SEC’s investigation into the bank.
Stanford was found guilty by a federal jury in June 2012 for his role in orchestrating the scheme over a 20-year period. Stanford misappropriated $7 billion from the bank to finance his personal business, the release said, and he is serving a 110-year prison sentence.
Five others were convicted for their roles in the scheme, receiving sentences ranging from three to 20 years in federal prison.
