Peruvians could lose $100 million in Stanford case

LIMA (Reuters) - A lawyer representing roughly 100 investors from Peru with money tied to Stanford Financial Group said on Tuesday his clients could face losses of up to $100 million.

Last week, Allen Stanford and three of his companies were charged with fraudulently selling $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit.

Stanford's office in Peru, where the securities regulator has suspended operations for 30 days, was authorized to work as a broker-dealer, but is under investigation for whether it sold CDs without a license.

It is not clear yet whether it did.

"The total amount is estimated to be between $50 and $100 million -- closer to $100 million," said Jaime Pinto, a lawyer representing investors from Peru.

Conasev, Peru's securities regulator, has said it has so far not uncovered evidence suggesting Stanford's Peru office acted outside legal limits.

The regulatory group did not rule out the idea that other Stanford companies, under investigation outside Peru, may have sold fraudulent CDs direct to Peruvian investors.

Stanford has units in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, among other Latin American countries.

(Reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Writing by Dana Ford, editing by Richard Chang)