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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scion who wrote (106488)	2/27/2009 10:20:02 AM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Stanford Officer to Be Arraigned on Obstruction Count (Update3) By Laurel Brubaker Calkins bloomberg.com Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group, arrived at federal court in Houston for arraignment on a charge that she obstructed an investigation into an alleged $8 billion fraud. Pendergest-Holt, 35, was arrested yesterday at Stanford’s Houston headquarters and spent the night in a federal detention center in the city, said her lawyer, Dan Cogdell. She is scheduled to appear today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy. Codgell said his client isn’t guilty of the crime. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Pendergest- Holt, Stanford Chairman R. Allen Stanford and Stanford Chief Financial Officer James Davis on Feb. 17, accusing them of misleading investors about $8 billion in certificates of deposit in Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. The FBI is investigating, along with the Internal Revenue Service and Postal Inspection Service. Pendergest-Holt “is extremely disappointed in the path the SEC and law enforcement are taking,” Cogdell said. “She has been cooperating for weeks, and now she is falsely charged for a crime she didn’t commit.” His client faces as much as five years in prison if convicted. She is a native of Baldwyn, Mississippi, a town of about 3,300 people near Elvis Presley’s hometown of Tupelo. She met Davis in church, her husband, Jim Holt, said. ‘Investable Assets’ Holt said his wife oversaw “investable assets” of the company. Her sister Amy is married to Ken Weeden, Stanford Financial Group’s managing director of investments and research. Cogdell said Pendergest-Holt was arrested during her “third or fourth trip to Houston” to meet with investigators, and had answered questions all morning before being arrested during the lunch break. “She thought she was going to get lunch, but instead she got taken into custody,” Cogdell said. Pendergest-Holt made “several” misrepresentations to the SEC while under oath to obstruct its investigation, according to the federal criminal complaint. The charge relates to a Feb. 10 meeting between Pendergest- Holt and representatives of the securities regulator at its office in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the complaint. She was subpoenaed to discuss allegations that Stanford Financial Group and related companies, including Stanford International Bank, defrauded investors. Failing to Reveal Pendergest-Holt is accused of failing to reveal that she participated in a Miami meeting with Stanford corporate officers to prepare to meet with the SEC. She also allegedly withheld the extent of her knowledge about Stanford International’s so-called Tier III portfolio, which the FBI said comprised 81 percent of the company’s investments. The bank managed its portfolio in three tiers, the SEC said in its complaint last week. The first included about $800 million in cash and like-cash instruments. Pendergest-Holt oversaw a second tier, valued at about $850 million, which invested through outside managers, the SEC said. In meetings with Stanford executives, Pendergest-Holt presented a pie chart that showed $3 billion in Tier III assets were invested in real estate and another $1.6 billion was a loan to a Stanford shareholder, according to the complaint. In legal documents filed in the U.S. Virgin islands, R. Allen Stanford described himself as the sole shareholder of his group of companies. “At no point did Pendergest-Holt reveal that the $1.6 billion loan had been discussed with corporate officers in Miami,” the government alleged in court papers. The case is U.S. v. Pendergast-Holt, 09-MJ-00056, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Dallas) To contact the reporter on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston federal court at laurel@calkins.us.com Last Updated: February 27, 2009 09:17 EST bloomberg.com