FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida AP – Sal Lazzara needed some new office furniture. Thanks to a flamboyant financier’s downfall, he found a matching set with an infamous pedigree.

For $1,500, the Boca Raton restaurateur bought a maroon leather chair, a cherry-wood desk and a matching credenza – all once owned by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of running a massive pyramid scheme.