Laura Pendergest-Holt, the former chief investment officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group, today pleaded not guilty to a two-count indictment charging her with conspiring to obstruct and substantively obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Pendergest-Holt pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy of the Southern District of Texas. Milloy scheduled Pendergest-Holt's trial date in United States v. Laura Pendergest-Holt, aka Laura Pendergest, aka Laura Holt for July 20 before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore. Pendergest-Holt's criminal-defense lawyers, Chris Flood, a partner in Houston's Flood & Flood, and Dan Cogdell, founder of the Cogdell Law Firm in Houston, were not immediately available for comment. A grand jury returned the indictment against Pendergest-Holt on May 12.
UPDATE: Cogdell says, "We want to try this as quickly as we can. . . . We believe we can strongly defend her."
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Comments