FACTBOX: Allen Stanford and his companies

(Reuters) - Texas billionaire Allen Stanford surrendered to U.S. authorities in Virginia on Thursday night after criminal charges tied to an alleged massive bank fraud were filed against him, Stanford's lawyer said.

Stanford, 59, already faced civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he fraudulently sold $8 billion in certificates of deposit with improbably high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank Ltd (SIB), headquartered in Antigua.

Following are some details about his financial empire, including from a 2008 copy of the group's Stanford Eagle Magazine and Stanford company websites. Information in the final section comes from the civil complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Allen Stanford

Is a fifth-generation Texan and chairman of the Stanford Financial Group of companies that claimed clients from 140 countries and assets under management and advisement of $50 billion.

The company said his grandfather, Lodis, founded the first Stanford Company during the Great Depression in 1932 in the small central-Texas town of Mexia.

Allen Stanford made his first fortune in real estate in the early 1980s and expanded the family firm into a global wealth management company.

He lives in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, and holds dual U.S. and Antigua and Barbuda citizenship. He was the first American to be knighted by Antigua and Barbuda in 2006.

Quote from Allen Stanford in magazine: "Our world is far different than the world my grandfather lived in when the first Stanford company was founded ... As a company founded in the midst of the Great Depression -- an environment of despair and negativity -- we have a long-proven understanding of how even the most severe downcycles can bring opportunities that yield significant benefits in the long run."

The major Stanford companies and divisions were:

* Stanford Financial Group Global Management and Stanford Global Advisory LLC, based in St.Croix.

* Stanford International Bank, headquartered in St. John's, Antigua.

* Stanford Group Company, based in Houston, Texas, was the North American head office for the companies.

* Stanford Policy Research Group, a Washington-based research team and a Government Affairs Office.

Among the financial services Stanford offered:

* Wealth management, including planning, asset management, brokerage, trust services, insurance and coins and bullion.

* Institutional services, including research, investment banking, and institutional sales and trading.

Support for sports included:

* Stanford's own private Twenty20 cricket competition in the Caribbean, including a $20 million game in November between England and his own team made up of West Indian players.

* Endorsement relationships with Fijian golfer Vijay Singh and England soccer player Michael Owen.

* Sponsored venues at the Houston Polo Club and International Polo Club in Palm Beach as well as the Stanford Charity Polo Day at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Britain.

* Sponsored the PGA Tour's Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.

* Sponsored the Stanford Antigua Sailing Week

The earlier SEC complaint said:

* Since 1994, Stanford International Bank claimed it had never failed to hit investment returns in excess of 10 percent a year.

* In 2008, the bank said its "diversified portfolio of investments" lost only 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 U.S. stocks benchmark declined 39 percent.

* SEC said the bank's historical returns were "improbable, if not impossible."

* The bank quoted certificate of deposit interest rates of more than 7 percent during 2005 and 2006, and quoted a 3-year CD with a 5.375 percent annual interest rate in November 2008, against comparable U.S. bank CDs of 3.2 percent.

* Did not disclose that its investment portfolio includes a significant portion in illiquid private equity and real estate investments.

(Reporting by Martin Howell; editing By Paul Simao)