March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire R. Allen Stanford denies running a Ponzi scheme and claims U.S. regulators caused investors to panic, creating a fatal run on his financial empire, his lawyer said today.

Stanford, 59, is accused by U.S. securities regulators of defrauding investors of as much as $8 billion through the sale of high-yield certificates of deposit by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.

“He’s not a swindler,” Stanford’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said in a phone interview today. “This isn’t a Ponzi scheme. He was able to pay back every investor until the regulators came in like storm troopers, caused a panic, and his banks got nationalized in Venezuela and Antigua.”

Stanford, two associates and three affiliated companies were sued Feb. 17 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused Stanford of skimming $1.6 billion in personal loans from his companies.

After two days of searching, FBI agents found Stanford on Feb. 19 near Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 50 miles south of Washington and served him with court papers related to the SEC case. Stanford has made no public statements or appearances since, other than to file court papers on March 9 invoking his right against self-incrimination under the U.S. Constitution.

“There were hard assets behind every dollar invested in his bank,’’ DeGuerin said, denying the Ponzi allegation. “Sure, the stock market crash hit him, but it didn’t hit him any harder than anybody else. His returns were in line with what the stock market indexes lost.”

SEC Failure

DeGuerin said the SEC sued Stanford to divert attention from its failure to uncover a $60 billion Ponzi scheme run by New York financier Bernard Madoff.

“The SEC has cremated the Stanford companies and Stanford, partly to get over the embarrassment at their lack of oversight in the Madoff case,’’ DeGuerin said. “But this isn’t anything like Madoff.’’

Stanford’s almost $8 billion investment portfolio was held in cash and investments, DeGuerin said. He declined to identify what investments comprise Stanford’s so-called Tier 3, which the SEC says contains 80 percent of the bank’s assets under the exclusive control of Stanford and Davis.

DeGuerin said that once Stanford has had a chance to present his side of the story, everyone will see “that the Stanford companies are no worse off than many others that have applied for government bailouts.’’

Koresh and DeLay

DeGuerin, a Houston lawyer who has represented former Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, said he began representing Stanford last week. DeGuerin is also known for winning a 2003 acquittal for New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who admitted killing and dismembering a neighbor in Galveston, Texas.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey froze all of Stanford’s personal and corporate assets on Feb. 17 under the control of a U.S. receiver, leaving Stanford without funds to pay lawyers. DeGuerin said he is in discussions with Stanford’s insurers and the court presiding over the SEC case to try to unfreeze funds to defend the Texas financier.

“It’s not fair that the government can come take everything away, and not even leave you money for a lawyer,’’ DeGuerin said. “That’s un-American.”

Not Charged

Stanford, the world’s 605th-richest person according to a 2008 ranking by Forbes magazine, has not been charged with a crime. He and his former college roommate, Stanford’s Chief Financial Officer James M. Davis, are accused of bilking investors through a scheme that repaid early participants with funds taken from later investors.

A third Stanford executive, Chief Investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt, was also sued by the SEC as a fraud participant and criminally charged with obstructing the investigation. Her lawyer, Dan Cogdell, said she is innocent and was cooperating with investigators until her arrest.

Davis is “fully cooperating’’ with all federal investigators, according to his lawyer, David Finn.

To contact the reporters on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com;

Last Updated: March 26, 2009 15:54 EDT