A federal grand jury has indicted Laura Pendergest-Holt, the Stanford Financial Group’s chief investment officer, on two felony counts: one count of conspiracy to obstruct an agency investigation and one count of obstruction. CNBC’s Scott Cohn reports that the indictment alleges that Pendergest-Holt hid details of Stanford Financial’s holdings from investigators, including a $1.6 billion loan made by the company to R. Allen Stanford and $3.2 billion in Stanford assets that allegedly were made up of “artificially valued real estate.”
Cohn reports that according to the indictment,
Pendergest-Holt met with two Stanford executives in Miami and Houston in January to plan her SEC testimony—and the alleged obstruction. The executives are listed in the indictment as “Executive A” and “Executive B”, but it is clear they are Allen Stanford and Chief Financial Officer James Davis.
Pendergest-Holt has been free on $300,000 bond since her arrest in February.
