HOUSTON, Texas — (DMN) – R. Allen Stanford, the 62-year old Texas man convicted in federal court earlier this year of bilking investors of $7 billion dollars has been sentenced to 110 years in prison without parole. U.S. District Judge David Hitner pronounced the sentence this morning in Houston. Stanford had faced a maximum of 230 years on his 13-count conviction. During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Stanford gave rambling statement to the court in which he denied he did anything wrong. Speaking for more than 40 minutes, Stanford said he was a scapegoat and blamed the federal government and a U.S. appointed receiver who took over his companies for tearing down his business empire and preventing his investors from getting any of their money back. “I’m not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy,” Stanford told Hittner. “I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t defraud anybody.”
Prosecutors had asked that Stanford be sentenced to 230 years in prison, the maximum sentence possible after a jury convicted the one-time billionaire in March on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts. Stanford’s convictions on conspiracy, wire and mail fraud charges followed a seven-week trial. Stanford’s attorneys had asked for a maximum of 44 months, a sentence he could have completed within about eight months because he has been jailed since his arrest in June 2009.
