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Stanford CFO Davis planning plea talks-lawyer

Thu Apr 9, 2009 6:49pm EDT

HOUSTON, April 9 (Reuters) - The chief financial officer of Stanford Group Co, who faces civil fraud charges related to an $8 billion Ponzi scheme, expects to enter plea negotiations with federal prosecutors, his lawyer said on Thursday.

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Attorney David Finn said that his client, James Davis, has been cooperating with investigators and expects to enter into talks as early as next week that could settle civil charges and any possible criminal charges.

He said Davis was helping investigators to locate assets.

"As recently as yesterday, James Davis traveled to meet with several agents of the FBI to locate and retrieve additional pieces of evidence that could be important to the government's case," Finn said in a telephone interview.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, James Davis and another executive and three of Stanford's companies, accusing them of a long-running Ponzi scheme involving high-yield certificates of deposit issued by his bank in Antigua.

In a Ponzi scheme, money from new investors is used to pay back earlier ones.

Stanford said in an interview this week with ABC News that he expects to be indicted on criminal charges in the next two weeks. He denied running a Ponzi scheme. (Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston)

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