TEXAS, United States (CMC) — Former cricket tycoon Allen Stanford is facing up to 20 years in prison after a federal jury yesterday found him guilty of masterminding a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme.

The 61-year-old Stanford, who bankrolled the multi-million dollar Stanford Twenty20 tournament for a few years in the Caribbean, was found guilty of 13 of the 14 charges he faced.

He was accused of using his Antigua-based Stanford Investment Bank (SIB) to perpetrate the scheme.

The jury reached its decision during their fourth day of deliberations, finding him guilty on all charges except a single count of wire fraud. He looked down as the verdict was read out.

His mother and daughters, who were in the federal courtroom, hugged one another, and one of the daughters started crying.

Stanford, who has been jailed since his indictment in 2009 and who did not testify during his trial, will remain incarcerated until he is sentenced.

During the trial, prosecutors labelled Stanford a con artist who used investors’ money to fund a string of failed businesses, pay for a lavish lifestyle that included yachts and private jets, and bribe regulators to help him hide his scheme.

But his attorneys told the court that the financier was a visionary entrepreneur who made money for investors and conducted legitimate business deals.

During the more than six-week trial, prosecutors methodically presented evidence, including testimony from ex-employees as well as emails and financial statements, they said showed Stanford orchestrated a 20-year scheme that bilked billions from investors through the sale of certificates of deposit, or CDs, from the SIB.

They argued that Stanford, considered at one time one of the wealthiest persons in the United States, lied to depositors from more than 100 countries by telling them their funds were being safely invested in stocks, bonds and other securities instead of being funnelled into his businesses and personal accounts.

The Texan was behind the Caribbean’s first real lucrative professional cricket league with the inauguration of the Stanford Twenty20 in 2006.

Stanford’s tentacles also stretched to the England and Wales Cricket Board with whom he partnered to stage the Stanford Super Series where England would play a West Indies side branded as the Stanford Superstars in several US$20 million winner-takes-all games.

Only once such game was possible in 2008 before the project collapsed after Stanford was arrested and charged in 2009.