Houston Ponzi Schemer Gets 110 Years in Prison
Former Houston investments tycoon R. Allen Stanford -- who at one time was one of the richest men in the country -- will probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Found guilty earlier this year of running a $7 billion investment fraud, Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in federal prison.
Stanford, whose financial empire once spanned the Americas, was sent to prison for cheating investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
Federal prosecutors had asked that Stanford -- who is now 62 years old -- get the maximum sentence of 230 years in prison.
Stanford’s attorneys asked for a maximum of 44 months, which he could have completed in less than a year because he would have been given credit for the three years he's already served since his arrest in June 2009.
In a rambling statement to the court, Stanford denied ever doing anything wrong. He said he never ran a Ponzi scheme and never defrauded anybody. He blamed the federal government and a U.S. appointed receiver who took over his companies for tearing down his business empire and preventing his investors from getting any of their money back.
Stanford will surely appeal his conviction and sentence, but he will do it from behind bars in a federal lockup.
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