More Frozen Stanford Financial Accounts to Be Released

Another $137 million held in frozen client accounts linked to accused fraudster Allen Stanford’s investment empire may soon be thawed by a judge and released back to investors.

Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed trustee overseeing operation of Stanford Financial Group during the Securities and Exchange Commission probe of alleged wrongdoing, has asked a judge to release 174 more brokerage accounts held at SEI Private Trust Co. It is unclear when the judge will rule on whether to release the frozen accounts.

Thousands of Stanford Financial client accounts were frozen in February 2009 after Stanford, three of his companies, and two of his top corporate officers were charged by the SEC with securities fraud linked to the sale of high-yield certificates of deposit in Stanford International Bank.

Authorities accused Stanford of lying to investors and running an $8 billion Ponzi or pyramid scheme in which early investors were paid profits with funds contributed to the scam by later investors. Stanford recently gave a brief television interview in which he angrily denied defrauding investors and vowed to fight the federal charges.

As the government’s investigation into fraud has continued, a judge has been releasing accounts cleared of being connected to the scheme. So far, more than 28,000 accounts, about 80 percent of all Stanford Financial accounts, have been turned loose back to clients.

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