Allen Stanford's $7B Ponzi scheme — 110 years, 28,000 victims

Allen Stanford was an American-Antiguan financier who built Stanford Financial Group, a financial services empire headquartered in Houston with a key affiliate, Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua. He was a fifth-generation Texan with dual citizenship and was knighted by Antigua and Barbuda. He presented himself as a legitimate alternative to traditional banks, sponsoring cricket tournaments and cultivating relationships with politicians and regulators worldwide.

The fraud centered on certificates of deposit sold by Stanford International Bank, which promised consistently higher-than-market returns while claiming to be as safe as U.S. government-insured accounts. The bank's financial statements were entirely fictional — the investment income was fabricated. New investor money was used to pay returns to earlier investors, the classic Ponzi structure. The scheme affected approximately 28,000 investors across 131 countries, many of whom invested their life savings.

The SEC, FBI, and other regulators charged Stanford with 'massive ongoing fraud' involving $7 billion in February 2009. He was convicted in March 2012 on 13 of 14 charges after just three hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to 110 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $5.9 billion. In a separate civil suit, he was ordered to disgorge $6.7 billion and pay a $5.9 billion civil penalty. His scheduled release date is March 13, 2103.