Free Republic

WASHINGTON—A federal grand jury in Houston returned a two-count indictment today charging Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group (SFG), with conspiring to obstruct a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proceeding investigating SFG, as well as a substantive count of obstructing the SEC proceeding, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Tim Johnson announced. The federal court in Houston will be issuing an order summoning Pendergest-Holt to appear in the near future for arraignment. Pendergest-Holt has been free on a $300,000 bond...

U.S. Reps. Paul E. Kanjorski and Chris Carney plan to wait before deciding whether to return thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a firm that lobbies for defense contractors and is under investigation by the FBI. Both congressmen said they won’t return the contributions now because no wrongdoing has been found in the case of the PMA Group. The FBI is investigating the group for funneling bogus campaign contributions to Rep. John Murtha and other lawmakers, according to The New York Times. Mr. Kanjorski also said he won’t return a $2,500 contribution from an official of the Stanford Financial...

More than 100 members of Congress—past and present—as well as congressional campaign committees and the national parties benefited from political donations from the political action committee or employees of Stanford Financial Group since 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm’s head, R. Allen Stanford, on Tuesday with orchestrating a $8 billion fraud. Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reported on Stanford’s status as an “international cricket sponsor, Washington political donor and private banker to Latin America’s wealthy.” President Barack Obama was the third-ranking recipient among lawmakers, with $31,750 collected from company employees during...