Laura Pendergest-Holt, the former chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group, is the only person charged with a crime (so far) in the billion-dollar scandal emerging around the investment group — and she is charged not with stealing any money, but with lying to lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission during testimony she gave on Feb. 10.
The only defense lawyer in the room with Pendergest-Holt that day was Proskauer Rose partner Thomas Sjoblom, an experienced white-collar defense lawyer (and former SEC staffer). Twice during early testimony, Sjoblom made sure to remind the SEC’s lawyers that he was the company’s lawyer, not Pendergest-Holt’s personal attorney. Take this exchange between Sjoblom and Kevin Edmundson, assistant regional director for the SEC’s Fort Worth, Texas, office:
