Leroy King, the former CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) of Antigua, has entered a plea of guilty in US District Court, ending the final chapter in the Stanford International Bank Limited Ponzi scheme scandal. He is the last defendant to be sentenced in the case. King fought extradition from his native Antigua for more than a decade, a case that seriously weakened Antigua's reputation and standing in the global community as a Rule of Law state. The US Attorney in Texas acknowledged the assistance of the Government of Antigua in the case.
The defendant pled guilty to relatively minor charges; he was facing a potential life sentence, given his age, due to the severity of the counts in the indictment. He entered a guilty plea to:
(1) Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice.
(2) Obstruction of Justice.
According to reports, King is a dual citizen of Antigua & Barbuda, and the United States. He reportedly received bribes from Allen Stanford in excess of a half million dollars, plus other perks and benefits. He actively obstructed an ongoing investigation of the bank that was conducted by the Securities & Exchange Commission.
King will be sentenced on April 24, 2020. The maximum sentence for the two counts is ten years plus a substantial fine. It is not known whether the size of the $7bn Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Stanford will be an aggravating factor in his sentence. While Stanford is serving a 110-year sentence, the other defendants only received sentences ranging from three to twenty years.
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