Stanford Exec Gets 3 Year Prison Term

Laura Pendergest-Holt

HOUSTON (AP) – A judge has sentenced a former top executive in the empire of disgraced Texas financier R. Allen Stanford to three years in prison for her role in helping the once jet-setting businessman bilk investors out of more than $7 billion.

Former Stanford chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt was sentenced Thursday in Houston federal court.

In June, Pendergest-Holt pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors to one count of obstruction of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proceeding in exchange for the three-year prison sentence.

Her guilty plea came after Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison following his conviction on fraud-related charges for orchestrating one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.

Two other Stanford executives are set for trial later this month.