United States v. Bruce Perraud - Court Docket Number: H 09- 601029-CR-Zloch
This case is assigned to the Honorable William J. Zloch, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District Florida, United States Courthouse, 299 East Broward Boulevard, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Arraignment was held on July 7, 2009 before Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow, who continued Perraud on the $100,000 personal security bond previously set by Magistrate Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum. A calendar call has been set for September 18, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge William J. Zloch in Courtroom A, and the trial has been continued to September 21, 2009 at 9:30 a.m.
On June 19, 2009, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida unsealed an indictment charging Perraud, a former global security specialist at the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, office of Stanford Financial Group (SFG), headquartered in Houston, Texas, with one count of destruction of records in a federal investigation (18 U.S.C. § 1519) stemming from a $7 billion investment fraud scheme. SFG was a parent company for a web of affiliated financial service providers.
According to the indictment, Stanford International Bank, Ltd. (SIBL), an offshore SFG bank affiliate located in St. John’s, Antigua, lured U.S. investors to invest funds in its certificate of deposit (CD) by touting investment returns not available through domestic banks. SIBL purported to have $8 billion in client funds invested primarily in CDs. On February 16, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against SIBL, and its affiliated entities, wherein it alleged that SIBL CDs were the mechanism by which the principals of SIBL orchestrated a “massive, ongoing fraud.” On February 16, 2009, a receiver (Stanford Financial Receiver) was appointed to assume exclusive control of all SFG related entities in order to protect SIBL assets from waste and depletion by SIBL’s principals. In addition, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an order protecting all SFG and SIBL documents and records from destruction. On February 17, 2009, the Stanford Financial Receiver sent an e-mail, with the attached court order, to SFG employees instructing them to preserve all documents relating to SFG. According to the indictment, Perraud opened the document preservation e-mail and relayed its contents to his supervisor. On February 23, 2009, Perraud allegedly contacted a commercial shredding company and ordered that it service SFG by destroying reems of SFG documents in its Ft. Lauderdale office.
In a related case in the Southern District of Texas, on June 19, 2009, the court also unsealed an indictment, filed under seal on June 18, 2009, charging Robert Allen Stanford, Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilberto Lopez, Mark Kuhrt, and Leroy King each with conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; wire fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering stemming from an investment fraud scheme. In addition, Stanford, Pendergest-Holt, and King are charged with conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation and obstruction of an SEC investigation. In another related case, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas also unsealed a criminal information, filed on June 18, 2009, charging co-conspirator James Davis, former chief financial officer for SFG and SIBL, with conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of the SEC.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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