Former regulator pleads guilty to role in massive Ponzi scheme

The former head of Antigua’s financial regulator has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role in helping to conceal the massive US$7 billion Ponzi scheme involving Stanford International Bank.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Leroy King, the former chief of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of obstruction of justice.

He is slated to be sentenced on April 24.

The charges against King stem from his role in obstructing an investigation into Stanford International Bank and related companies by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The DoJ said that King denied requests for information and cooperation in the SEC’s investigation of companies operated by Allen Stanford.

In 2012, Stanford was convicted by a U.S. jury for orchestrating an investment fraud that spanned 20 years, enabling Stanford to misappropriate US$7 billion from the bank. He is serving a 110-year prison sentence.

“From at least 2003 through February 2009, Stanford made regular secret corrupt payments of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts to King in order to obtain his assistance in hiding the truth… from the SEC and other regulatory agencies,” the DoJ said in a statement.

The DoJ reported that King received more than US$500,000 from Stanford over the years, along with gifts, such as Super Bowl tickets and trips on Stanford’s private jets.

The DoJ said that King, who was extradited in November 2019, was the last defendant the Stanford case.

Several others have been convicted for their roles in the scheme and received federal prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years in length.