In the ongoing trial of two Stanford Financial Group executives, a witness testified yesterday that Thomas Raffanello received a copy of a federal court order to retain company papers more than a week before some documents were destroyed. According to Bloomberg, Raffanello and his colleague, Bruce Perraud, had a contractor shred documents requested by the SEC after the agency sued R. Allen Stanford for financial fraud. The witness was Lula Rodriguez, a corporate communications manager for the Stanford business.
Perraud and Raffanello were previously indicted for obstructing the SEC probe by having the documents shredded. If found guilty, Rafanell and Perraud face up to 40 years in prison.