Stanford Financial Sponsorship of PGA Tour Event Dropped

Stanford Financial Group, the Houston-based international investment and banking empire accused in a massive Ponzi scheme, has been dropped as co-sponsor of an upcoming professional golf association tour stop in Memphis.

For the past two years, the tournament has been called the Stanford St. Jude Championship. However, with Stanford Financial under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for an $8 billion fraud, the event will now be called the St. Jude Classic, PGA officials said Thursday.

The name change was expected, since company founder Allen Stanford and two of his top corporate officers were charged in February with orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar scheme tied to the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposit in Stanford International Bank. Stanford and the others are named in an SEC civil complaint but he has not been charged with a crime.

A former Stanford Financial chief investment officer has also been charged with lying to investigators and obstructing the federal probe into Stanford’s dealings.

The golf tournament is scheduled to be played on the TPC at Southwind course June 10-14.

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