--Signs placed February 17, 2009 at Houston office by law enforcement The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Pendergest-Holt, Allen Stanford, and James M. Davis of fraud[11][12] in connection with Stanford Financial Group's US$8 billion certificate of deposit (CD) investment scheme that offered "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates".
[5][18] The FBI alleges that Pendergest-Holt met with several Stanford corporate officers in Miami in February 2009 to prepare for her testimony with the SEC.
Zarich has said he was trained by Pendergest-Holt to deflect questions about the investment strategy while pitching to wealthy clients in Antigua, where the bank was chartered.
Zarich also has said Pendergest-Holt armed him with answers for potential investors worried about the size of Stanford's tiny, Antigua-based auditor.
On June 21, 2012, Pendergest-Holt pleaded guilty before federal judge David Hittner to obstructing the SEC's investigation into the Stanford operation.
She admitted that she withheld information about Tier III in order to give the firm "time to correct the disclosures, amend them, so we could fall into line.
[24] The former head of Antigua and Barbuda’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), Leroy King, also involved in the Allen Stanford Ponzi Scheme fraud, was charged by the US authorities.
[27] On the witness stand at Allen Stanford's trial in Houston, Texas, on February 2, 2012, James Davis admitted to having an affair with Pendergest-Holt from 2001 until 2003.
The employees of Stanford Financial were a very tight-knit group that were bound together by family ties, leading to allegations of nepotism.
[28] Pendergest-Holt has a sister married to Ken Weeden, Stanford Financial Group's former managing director for investments and research.
Pendergest-Holt's cousin Heather Sheppard was an "equity specialist" at the company and was also James Davis's secretary and lover.