HOUSTON-An accountant who worked for tycoon R Allen Stanford testified yesterday that he grew increasingly concerned that the financier wouldn't be able to return the US$2 billion he secretly borrowed from investors to pay for business and personal expenses, including millions to maintain his yachts and private jets. Henry Amadio told jurors at Stanford's federal fraud trial in Houston that various businesses into which Stanford sunk money were basically a money pit that ate up investor dollars and didn't turn a profit. The money Stanford borrowed included US$330 million for two airlines and a US$20 million prize for a cricket tournament, he said. "As it continued to grow... the concern was: Was it (investors' money) ever going to be paid back?" Amadio said.
Prosecutors allege Stanford masterminded a fraud in which he bilked investors out of more than US$7 billion in a massive Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme centred on the sales of certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua. Authorities allege he used depositors' money to fund his businesses as well as his lavish billionaire lifestyle and that he lied to depositors by telling them their funds were being safely invested.