The court-appointed receiver in the R. Allen Stanford massive Ponzi scheme litigation scored another victory Tuesday when one of five banks accused of aiding and abetting the Houston financier agreed to settle claims against it for $157 million.
Lawyers representing the Official Stanford Investors Committee and the receiver, Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey, filed documents in federal courts in Houston and Dallas, announcing that Société Générale Private Banking had agreed to the nine-digit settlement.
The agreement comes less than a week before the Swiss bank and three other banks — Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank), HSBC Bank and Independent Bank (formerly Bank of Houston) — are set to stand trial in federal court in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt must approve the Société Générale settlement before it is final.
In January, Mississippi-based Trustmark Corporation, the parent of Trustmark National Bank, agreed to pay $100 million in a settlement agreement.
The court-appointed receiver and his lead counsel, Baker Botts partner Kevin Sadler, have now recovered about $1.3 billion in their efforts to return money to investors.
The remaining three banks face trial on Feb. 27 before Judge Hoyt. The court-appointed receiver is expected to ask the jury to award more than $4 billion in damages, according to court records.
Stanford was convicted on fraud charges in 2012 and is serving a 110-year prison sentence.
The lawyers representing the court-appointed receiver and the investors committee include Sadler and Baker Botts counsel Scott Powers, as well as Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman & Robbins lawyers Scott Berman, Philippe Adler, David J. Ranzenhofer and Geoffrey Cajigas.
Société Générale lawyers include Skadden Arps partners Noelle Reed and Allen L. Lanstra, as well as Morgan Lewis associate Heidi Rasmussen.
The case is officially titled Guthrie Abbott v. Trustmark National Bank, in the Southern District of Texas. No. 4:22-CV-00800.