'You, sir, are a dirty, rotten, scoundrel': Victims' fury as disgraced financier Allen Stanford is jailed for 110 years
Stanford was convicted in March of 13 or 14 counts of fraudHe had been running his Ponzi scheme for two decades
Prosecutors sought maximum sentence of 230 years
Stanford was once considered 605th richest man in the worldOrganized series of high-paying cricket matches between England and a Caribbean
side

By
Bob Graham

PUBLISHED:

00:24 GMT, 15 June 2012

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UPDATED:

16:07 GMT, 15 June 2012

A Texan tycoon who defrauded almost 5 billion from investors and used his wealth to bankroll international cricket matches in England was jailed for 110 years yesterday.

Allen Stanford, who for 22 years ran investment scams with an estimated 17,000 victims, was once one of the richest men in America, worth more than 1.2 billion.

The courtroom in Houston was packed with many of his victims to hear the sentence handed down, the majority of whom were small business owners.

Two of the estimated 17,000 victims of Stanford’s fraud were allowed to address the court.

Jailbird: Convicted financier Allen Stanford arrives at Federal Court in Houston for sentencing

Jaime Escalona, who represented Latin
American victims, addressed the hearing before turning to stare directly
at Stanford to tell him: 'You, sir, are a dirty, rotten, scoundrel.'

The other victims’ spokesman, Angela
Shaw, of the Stanford Victims Coalition, said of the fraudster: 'Allen
Stanford has stolen more than billions of dollars. He took our lives as
we knew them.' She said some 28,000 people had lost money in the scam.

Yet, even in his final hour of shame
the former tycoon couldn’t help but deny it all and to blame others.
'I’m not a thief…..I did not defraud anybody,' he said.

'The US government are responsible
ruining the business….they destroyed it and turned it to nothing.
Stanford was a real brick-and-mortar global financial empire.'

Guilty: Stanford was convicted in March of 13 of 14 counts of fraud

Stanford now plans to appeal against the conviction and sentence even though he was officially declared 'indigent' – penniless.

The court has now to appoint lawyers
who will be funded out of a scheme similar to Britain’s own legal-aid
and it is estimated to run into tens of millions of dollars.

During sentencing,
Stanford’s 40-minute rambling account was the first time he had actually
spoken to the court about what had taken place during the 22-years his
banking empire existed.

He claimed he was a scapegoat and
blamed the federal government and a court-appointed receiver who took
over his companies in 2009 for tearing down his business empire and
preventing his investors from getting any of their money back.

He said: 'I’m not here to ask for
sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy but I will tell
you I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t defraud anybody.'

Stanford was once considered one of
the richest men in the U.S., with an estimated personal net worth of
more than 1.2billion. His financial empire stretched from the U.S. to
Latin America and the Caribbean.

Calling Stanford arrogant and without
remorse, prosecutors said he used the money from investors who bought
certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank in Antigua to fund a
string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for a lavish
lifestyle that included yachts, a fleet of private jets and sponsorship
of cricket tournaments.

Stanford added moments before being
led away: 'If I live the rest of my life in prison… I will always be
at peace with the way I conducted myself in business.'

Disgraced tycoon Stanford’s schemes
were the second largest in US financial history – second only to Bernie
Madoff, the so-called ‘King of Con’ – who was given 150 years for his
11.2-billion Ponzi scheme.

The majority of the victims were small businesses or private investors, looking to cash-in on interest rates above bank rate.

Cricket fan: The then Sir Allen Stanford poses with the England team during the Stanford 2020 Super Series match between England and Middlesex in 2008. He was later stripped of his knighthood

Cheeky: During the 2008 Stanford Super Series, the financier was photographed bouncing the wife of English cricket player Matt Prior on his knee

Happier times: Allen Stanford poses with Stanford Superstars following their victory at the end of the Stanford 20/20 Super Series match between England and Stanford Superstars in 2008

Mike Bishop, of Houston, Texas, who
lost round 900,000 said outside the court: 'This was a wholesale
failure by government agencies who regulate companies such as Stanford.
They are as responsible.

'Here in Texas we believe in capital
punishment but I would not wish it on Stanford, I want him to wake up
every morning in his prison cell and reflect on what he did to us all.'

Stanford, ever the showman, entered the courtroom dressed in green prison fatigues and grinning all over his face.

When handcuffs were taken off he waved
to his elderly mother Sammie Stanford who sat in the well of the court
alongside Stanford’s daughter Randi.

Prosecutors had asked the court for a
sentence of 230 years in prison. The prosecutor told Judge David
Hittner: '230 years will not get anyone their money back but on
sleepless nights they will know that he got the maximum.'

In June 2008 Stanford signed a
controversial deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for a
series of five Twenty20 cricket games between England and a Caribbean
side nicknamed the ‘Stanford All-Stars.’ The winners would collect a
prize-fund of 13.6-million and the losers would get nothing.

Left in the lurch:: Stanford Bank headquarters in Panama City, Panama

From prince to pauper: The man who was once transporting chests filled with cash in his helicopter (left) has been declared indigent and having to rely on court-appointed lawyers

During the tournament, Stanford was
pictured sitting with the England players wives, at one sitting bouncing
the wife of wicketkeeper Matt Prior on his knee.

His next trick was to fly into Lords
aboard a personalised helicopter laden with treasure chests of cash. He
planned to be the saviour of English cricket, even though he admitted he
never really understood the game.

By the time of his arrest, in February
2009, the ECB has severed all ties with Stanford and his honorary
knighthood provided by the government of Antigua had been stripped.

The jury that convicted Stanford also
cleared the way for U.S. authorities to go after about 212-million in
stolen investor funds sitting in the financier’s frozen foreign bank
accounts in London, Canada and Switzerland.

Three other former Stanford executives
are scheduled for trial in September. A former Antiguan financial
regulator was indicted and awaits extradition to the U.S.

Prosecutors said Stanford had treated
his victims like 'roadkill'. They had asked for a prison sentence
spanning more than two centuries, calling him a 'ruthless predator' who
stole from investors 'simply to satisfy his own greed and vanity.'