Others linked to Stanford case; former Antigua official accused

— -- Federal authorities charged a former chief of Antigua's financial regulatory commission with aiding Texas billionaire Robert Allen Stanford in an alleged $7 billion fraud scheme based in Antigua that bilked an estimated 30,000 investors.

Leroy King allegedly was paid more than $100,000 in bribes in exchange for his positive reports on Stanford's Antigua banking operation before it collapsed earlier this year, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston Friday.

King also told the Securities and Exchange Commission the Stanford International Bank complied with regulations when the SEC inquired in 2005, federal authorities charged.

Stanford surrendered to FBI agents last week and appeared in federal court in Richmond, Va., on Friday. He was ordered to Texas for a detention hearing.

Stanford was indicted on criminal conspiracy, fraud and other charges. The 21-count indictment also charged King; Laura Pendergest-Holt, Stanford's former chief investment officer; Mark Kuhrt, his banking group controller; and Gilberto Lopez, his chief accountant.

The Securities and Exchange Commission simultaneously amended the civil case the agency filed against Stanford in February by adding defendants and details of what the agency called a "massive Ponzi scheme" that operated for at least the last decade.

The criminal indictment accused the defendants of marketing Stanford International Bank certificates of deposit that offered "consistent double-digit returns" at interest rates that "greatly exceeded" those at U.S. banks and professed to feature safety and security.

As part of the marketing pitch, the indictment charged, the defendants falsely told investors the bank's value skyrocketed from about $1.2 billion in 2001 to about $8.5 billion by December 2008.

Roughly 80% of the bank's investment portfolio consisted of illiquid investments, including more than $1 billion in personal loans to Stanford himself and "grossly overvalued" real and personal property acquired from Stanford-controlled entities, the indictment charged.