The Texan cricket impresario Allen Stanford borrowed $1.6 billion from his investment empire, it emerged yesterday as his chief investment officer was due in a court in Houston to hear charges that she had obstructed regulators.

Laura Pendergest-Holt, who US regulators had hoped would lead them to the heart of what they believed to be one of the biggest frauds in the world, was charged with obstruction on Thursday. She was held in a detention centre and was due to appear in court yesterday.

The FBI, which is investigating an alleged $9.2 billion (£6.5 billion) fraud at Mr Stanford’s American investment business, indicated in court papers that they became frustrated with Ms Pendergest-Holt after she failed to reveal how much she knew about Stanford International Bank.

In an affidavit the FBI said that she repeatedly misrepresented how much she knew about the whereabouts of the bulk of the assets of the bank and failed to mention that her boss had borrowed $1.6 billion from the company.

She is also accused of failing to tell regulators that she was a member of the investment committee of the bank.

Last week Ms Pendergest-Holt had agreed to assist investigators and help the receiver to sift through the assets of Mr Stanford. Her decision to help was interpreted by US criminal lawyers as a sign that Ms Pendergest-Holt was lining herself up to negotiate with US authorities for a plea bargain. Her lawyer, Brent Baker, had refused to comment.

In earlier written affidavits it was claimed that Ms Pendergest-Holt had written scripts that staff should repeat to reassure anxious investors.

After her arrest, however, Mr Baker said: “She is looking forward to working with the Government to get all the facts out and put this behind her.”

The court papers also showed that as the investigation by the FBI began to close in on Mr Stanford, the financier had become angry at an internal meeting on February 5. According to the papers other people at the meeting recalled Mr Stanford banging his fists on the table and saying: “The assets are there.”

On February 17 Mr Stanford, his business associate James Davis and Ms Pendergest-Holt were charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for duping investors of $9.2 billion. A Texan court also froze all of the cricket impresario’s business and personal assets in the US.

The Senate of Antigua and Barbuda approved a government takeover of land owned by Mr Stanford yesterday. The Caribbean nation’s House of Representatives passed a government motion on Thursday to take control of more than 250 acres of Mr Stanford’s property before a US court-appointed receiver seized it. The motion stated that the land was “required for a public purpose”.

The Antigua and Barbuda Government said that it had the right to take the property to guarantee the viability of the Bank of Antigua, which was owned by the Texas tycoon.

Mr Stanford is estimated to have been worth $2.2 billion and he once bragged that his empire controlled about $50 billion of assets. It was not clear whether a substantial chunk of the personal wealth of Mr Stanford was boosted by the $1.6 billion loan from the company.

Mr Stanford was tracked in Virginia this month. He was handed charge papers and told to hand over his passport. The SEC and federal investigators are trying to build fraud cases against the three financiers. The US authorities had been suspicious of the financial dealings of Mr Stanford over a 15-year period.

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