Two former high-ranking executives of Stanford Financial Group were sentenced to 20 years in prison for their roles in a massive fraud scheme involving Stanford International Bank (SIB).
Gilbert T. Lopez Jr., the former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group Company, and Mark J. Kuhrt, the former global controller of Stanford Financial Group Global Management, were convicted by a Houston federal jury on November 19, 2012, of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.
The investigation revealed that Lopez and Kuhrt were aware of and tracked Stanford’s misuse of SIB’s assets, kept the misuse hidden from the public and from almost all of Stanford’s other employees, and worked behind the scenes to prevent the misuse from being discovered. They also helped Stanford falsely represent to SIB customers during the economic crash in late 2008 that Stanford had infused hundreds of millions of dollars into SIB when he had not.
Lopez and Kuhrt helped design a fraudulent real estate transaction that involved falsely inflating parcels of land purchased at $63.5 million to a purported value of $3.2 billion. The scheme ultimately led to the imprisonment of Robert Allen Stanford, who was previously convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 110 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Lopez and Kuhrt to three years of supervised release and ordered Lopez to pay a $25,000 fine. Judge Hittner also found that both defendants obstructed justice by committing perjury at trial.
The case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS-CI, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Varnado of the Southern District of Texas and by Deputy Chief Jeffrey Goldberg and Trial Attorney Andrew Warren of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
In related news, James M. Davis, Stanford’s chief financial officer, pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government, testifying at both Stanford’s trial and the trial of Lopez and Kuhrt. Davis was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Related Federal Cases
- Lina Sun, RICO Employment Referral Scheme, Texas 2014 · New Mexico
- Jose Antonio Caballero, Mortgage Fraud Scheme, Texas 2011 · Texas
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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