Antigua fires finance chief over alleged Stanford ponzi scheme

The government of Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday fired the country's chief financial regulator over U.S. charges that he collaborated with Texas billionaire Allen Stanford in a US$7 billion fraud.

Attorney General Justin Simon told the Reuters by telephone that U.S. authorities had asked for Leroy King be detained pending a formal extradition process.

Reuters said King had already been suspended as head of Antigua and Barbuda's Financial Services Regulatory Commission. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indictment on Friday accused King along with Stanford and four associates of fraud, conspiracy and obstruction relating to the operation of a "massive Ponzi scheme".

Simon told Reuters Antigua and Barbuda's authorities would be investigating other offshore companies on the twin-island state to ensure that the "cancer" from the Stanford case had not spread wider.

Source: Reuters