Missing billionaire found in Virginia

Missing billionaire found in Virginia

The FBI locates and officially serves papers to financier Robert Allen Stanford, who is accused of running a $9.2 billion investment fraud scheme.

(CNN) -- Federal agents have located financier Robert Allen Stanford and served him with papers accusing him and three of his companies of orchestrating a $9.2 billion investment fraud scheme, the FBI said Thursday.

Stanford, who was located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has no criminal charges pending against him and was not taken into custody, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. But the Securities and Exchange Commission said Stanford was behind "a fraud of shocking magnitude," and the FBI served him a copy of the SEC complaint, Kolko said.

The FBI won't talk about a criminal investigation of Stanford's activities, but federal law enforcement officials familiar with the case leave no doubt that federal agents are investigating his financial dealings. Multiple officials indicated criminal charges are not imminent and would not discuss potential charges.

Stanford has arranged to give his passport to one of his attorneys who will offer it to federal authorities.

The FBI would not say whether Stanford is under surveillance, but said they expect to know his whereabouts. "He's not hiding from us at all," one official said.

CNN's efforts to reach Stanford or company representatives were unsuccessful. In September, Forbes magazine ranked him No. 205 in its "400 Richest Americans" article.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Dallas, Texas, the SEC accused the financier's Stanford International Bank of using a network of financial advisers to sell about $8 billion of "certificates of deposit" to investors. The bank boasted of a unique investment strategy that it said had allowed it to reap double-digit returns on its investments for the previous 15 years, the SEC said.

The civil complaint alleged an additional scheme relating to $1.2 billion in sales.

The bank, based on the Caribbean island of Antigua, claims its network has $51 billion in deposits and assets under management or advisement, with more than 70,000 clients in 140 countries. But the allegations against Stanford and his companies have sparked runs on Stanford banks in Antigua and in Venezuela, where the government took over the local subsidiary after it recorded "extraordinary" withdrawals Tuesday and Wednesday, said Edgar Hernandez Behrens, Venezuela's superintendent of banks.

The SEC complaint also named James Davis, SIB's chief financial officer; Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group; and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management.

CNN