Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in federal prison after being earlier convicted of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Stanford is 62 years old, and the punishment is basically a life sentence for a billionaire used to running around on yachts and private jets.
"I didn't run a Ponzi scheme, I didn't defraud anybody, and there was never any intent to defraud anybody," Stanford told U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner before he was sentenced.
Stanford's elaborate Ponzi scheme affected up to 30,000 investors from more than 100 countries.
Stanford began by owning a local gym before rising to power and becoming the largest employer in the island of Antigua. There he opened up his own Stanford International Bank, started a cricket tournament that captured more than 300 million viewers, and was even knighted (although the knighthood was later revoked in 2010).
To amass this wealth, Stanford sold investors phony certificates of deposits that he said were going to be used to buy stocks and bonds. Instead, he invested in risky personal and real estate ventures.
In 2008, Forbes ranked him as the 605th richest person in the world with a net worth of $2.2 billion.
Stanford and his lawyers made an effort to paint the government as the reason for the losses to his investors. He accused the government of using "Gestapo tactics" and his lawyers contended that the problems really began when the government froze his assets.
Stanford has been held in prison for three years where he was badly beaten in a jailhouse brawl. He became addicted to painkillers and antidepressants, and tried to claim that his memory was unfit for trial because of the beating and drugs. The judge dismissed the claim.