Stanford fraud case – Day 2

Stanford's building in Fairpark (taken at noon Tuesday)

3 p.m. update: Reuters is reporting that Laura Pendergest-Holt and Jim Davis have been served with court papers. However, their locations were not specified. Federal regulators said on Wednesday they do not know the whereabouts of billionaire Texas banker Allen Stanford, charged with a “massive” $8 billion international financial fraud.

Asked if Stanford may be outside the United States, she said: “Certainly that’s a possibility, but we don’t know.” Read the full story.

2 p.m. update: From AP: Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s office has issued subpoenas to gather the information from Stanford Financial offices in Mississippi.

“If there are problems in Mississippi with Stanford, we are going to find out about it,” Hosemann said. “By subpoenaing this information, we hope to find out if and how many Mississippians were affected by the products under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission.”

Hosemann said his office received its first complaint against Stanford Financial on Wednesday, though he did not disclose the details of the complaint. Read the full story.

12:30 p.m. update: DJ chief photographer Thomas Wells spent the morning in Baldwyn. He found the homes of Jim Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt. He said he saw a man at Davis’ home, but Pendergest-Holt’s home looked empty.

Home of Stanford CFO Jim Davis

Home of Stanford CIO Laura Pendergest-Holt

12:30 p.m. update: The Stanford Financial Group Receivership site is now active. However, it’s lacking a lot of information, including press information, FAQ and contact info. The site does say:

On February 17 and 18, 2009, direct all inquiries to the Securities and Exchange Commission. A link to the website for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which includes a press release relating to this matter, may be found under Links above.

Additional information will be posted on this website soon.

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An excerpt (full story) from the pages of today’s Daily Journal:

TUPELO – A close-knit group of family and friends – some in Northeast Mississippi – is at the center of what federal regulators call a “fraud of shocking magnitude.”

Stanford Financial Group CEO Robert Allen Stanford, a Texas billionaire who has a home in the Virgin Islands, Chief Financial Officer James Davis and Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt, both of Baldwyn, have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission of bilking investors out of about $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit.

In a civil complaint filed in Federal District Court in Dallas, the SEC said “Stanford and the close circle of family and friends with whom he runs his businesses perpetrated a massive fraud based on false promises and fabricated historical return data to prey on investors.”

Both Davis and Pendergest-Holt have offices in SFG’s Tupelo office. Davis, who was Stanford’s college roommate, is a fifth-generation north Mississippian with family ties to the Baldwyn area; Pendergest-Holt is a native of Baldwyn.

Read our previous Biz Buzz coverage about Stanford.

And here’s what we’ve found out so far about Jim Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt:

- James “Jim” Davis is director and CFO of Stanford Financial Group Co. and Stanford International Bank.

He grew up in Baldwyn and is a fifth-generation north Mississippian. In May 2008, Davis told the Daily Journal that he would split his time between the Tupelo office and the Memphis office.

Davis has a house in Baldwyn.

He has been a part of Stanford Private Wealth Management for 30 years. He is a graduate of Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business with degrees in accounting and business administration. He and Stanford were roommates at Baylor.

Laura Pendergest-Holt is the chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group. She has an office in Stanford’s building in Tupelo’s Fairpark District.

She lives in Baldwyn and is a graduate of Baldwyn High School. She is a 1995 graduate from the Mississippi University for Women and currently serves on the MUW Foundation. She obtained a Master’s of Science in mathematics from Mississippi State University in 1997.

In 2006, she was one of the Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40. She’s a frequent speaker at the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration’s annual banking and finance symposium, which Stanford sponsored in 2008.

She is a board member of Youth Villages, a nonprofit organization that helps children with serious emotional and behavioral problems and their families.

Read R. Allen Stanford’s profile on djournal.com.

And read about Davis’ and Pendergest-Holt’s political contributions here.