Stanford CFO declines to cooperate in SEC Probe

A man is silhouetted as he walks past the Stanford Group AG building in Zurich in this February 18, 2009 file photo.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stanford Financial Group's Chief Financial Officer James Davis, accused with the company's founder Allen Stanford of carrying out a $8 billion Ponzi scheme, has refused to cooperate in the investigation.

Davis asserted his Fifth-Amendment right, declining "to testify or provide an accounting ... or produce any documents related to the matters set forth in the Commission's complaint," according to a filing with a federal court in Dallas on Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged both Davis and Texas billionaire Stanford, former Baylor University roommates, with carrying out a Ponzi scheme in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.

Davis' lawyer was not immediately available to comment.

Davis and Stanford, who have not been charged with criminal wrongdoing, face allegations of misappropriating "billions of dollars of investor funds" and falsifying financial statements issued by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, according to filings with the Dallas court on Friday.

Meanwhile on Friday, the company's chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt, walked free on bail after posting a $300,000 bond.

FBI agents had arrested her at Stanford's Houston-based headquarters and accused her of obstructing a probe into what the SEC called "massive ongoing fraud" by Stanford and his companies.

Stanford's assets -- pegged at $50 billion by the company -- are under the control of a court-appointed receiver, Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey. A Dallas judge is expected to rule Monday on whether to extend the temporary restraining order that gives Janvey control of the assets.

The receiver thus far has identified only about $90 million in actual assets, an FBI agent told a court hearing in Pendergest-Holt's case.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay; Editing by Bernard Orr)