Filing: Stanford books a tangled mess

HOUSTON (AP) - A filing by a court-appointed receiver said companies owned by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford were a confusing mess and sold certificates of deposit in which top executives might not have invested.

Court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey's filing described a series of businesses with bloated payrolls, high overhead and dozens of different accounting systems.

The Houston Chronicle reports Stanford Financial Group brokerages and financial companies were not capable of operating independently without the revenue received from the sale of the CDs issued by the Stanford International Bank in Antigua.

Janvey said it was the most convoluted accounting and record-keeping he had ever seen. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Chairman R. Allen Stanford and Chief Financial Officer James Davis ran a Ponzi scheme in which earlier CD investors were paid using the proceeds from new investors.

Stanford denied the allegations and said if there was any fraud, he was not a part of it.