No one likes lawyers rifling through their underwear drawer.
Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group — who has been charged along with Allen Stanford himself and number 2 Jim Davis — is trying to get overturned a court order that put her assets under the control of a court-appointed receiver.
In an emergency motion, attorneys for Pendergest-Holt wrote that lawyers for the receiver, Ralph Janvey, conducted a raid of her Mississippi home March 2, seizing her family’s car, diverting her mail, went through her underwear drawer, and mocked her husband — telling him he wouldn’t be living in the house for long.
The court filing called the move a “stunning act of bad faith”, and asked for the assets to be returned form the control of the receiver. It argued that Pendergest-Holt had agreed to the seizure only before she knew that criminal charges would be filed against her. Now that they have been, the seizure violates her constitutional rights, according to the filing.
The filing says:
In effect, the Receiver’s lawyers, in the context of the civil case, have conducted a free-wheeling warrantless search of Ms. Pendergest-Holt’s home and have taken Ms. Pendergest-Holt’s personal property without due process of law. Because the Receiver’s lawyers are duty-bound to cooperate with the SEC, DOJ and FBI under the Receivership Order, the Government will no doubt be the primary beneficiary of the Receiver’s unlawful search and seizure of Defendant’s property.
Pendergest-Holt was charged by the SEC earlier this month with making misrepresentations to the FBI about, among among things, her knowledge of Stanford’s portfolio.