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Stanford jury rules that foreign accounts must be forfeited

Convicted swindler Allen Stanford should forfeit some $330 million stashed in foreign bank accounts, a jury found on Thursday.

The verdict clears the way for the U.S. government to try to seize the funds and return them to investors.

Stanford was convicted on Tuesday in federal court in Houston of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

During a six-week trial, prosecutors said Stanford stole the deposits of investors in Stanford International Bank in Antigua to fund a lavish lifestyle of girlfriends, mansions, private jets and yachts.

The same court then considered whether funds held in 29 accounts in Canada, Switzerland, Britain and other countries should be forfeited. The accounts are mainly in the name of Stanford International Bank, which Stanford owned, and in the name of Stanford himself.