Cricket Tycoon Stanford Under Arrest

Sir Allen Stanford, the scandal-hit Texan billionaire who controversially bankrolled a multi-million pound cricket series through a deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board, has surrendered to the US authorities after a warrant was issued for his arrest on criminal charges.

The 58-year-old already faces civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over an alleged fraud worth $8bn (£6bn).

Stanford turned himself in to the FBI in Virginia and is expected to appear in a Richmond federal court although it was not immediately clear what criminal charges he faces.

Dick DeGuerin, Stanford’s lawyer, told reporters that his client had surrendered ‘to some FBI agents who were hiding out in black SUVs outside the residence where he was staying in Virginia’.

He said Stanford told the agents to arrest him if they had a warrant, but if they did not have a warrant, he would go back to Houston to turn himself in.

In February, the SEC, the US financial watchdog, described the alleged fraud at Stanford Financial group as a ‘fraud of shocking magnitude’.

The cricket impresario is accused by the SEC of luring investors with promises of improbable and unsubstantiated high returns on certificates of deposit and other investments – what is known as a Ponzi scheme.

The billionaire financer has refused to talk to US regulators investigating his alleged fraud, and court documents show that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment – the right to withhold potentially self-incriminating evidence.

The ECB ended all its commercial relationships with Stanford after the allegations came to light.