March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Stanford Group Co.’s receiver asked a judge to force Hunton & Williams LLP to turn over all records of the law firm’s work for Stanford International Bank, which is at the center of an alleged $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

The Richmond, Virginia-based law firm rejected a Feb. 24 request to ship the receiver original files and billing records for Stanford’s foreign businesses, including the Antigua-based bank and operations in Ecuador, Panama and Grenada, according to papers filed yesterday in federal court in Dallas.

“The Hunton & Williams law firm has declined to relinquish possession and control of records that are part of the receivership estate,” Ralph Janvey, Stanford’s court-appointed receiver, said in the filing. “Information regarding valuable assets belonging to the bank and other offshore Stanford entities may be found in the files.”

The law firm and one of its Miami-based lawyers, Carlos Loumiet, questioned Janvey’s jurisdiction over Houston-based Stanford’s foreign records. Janvey, appointed to recover assets to repay victims, said Hunton & Williams is providing only the requested documents for Stanford’s U.S. businesses.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 17 sued Stanford President R. Allen Stanford, two executives and three of his companies, accusing them of defrauding investors through the sale of $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit at the Antigua-based bank.

Law Firm Response

In an e-mail today, Hunton & Williams spokeswoman Kim Perret said the law firm is cooperating with Janvey and will seek a court ruling on the dispute.

“There are legal issues regarding jurisdiction and client privilege that must be resolved before we proceed further,” Perret said. “We have agreed with the receiver’s counsel to ask the court to rule on these issues, a process that will protect all parties involved.”

The SEC accused Stanford of skimming as much as $1.6 billion in personal loans from the Stanford Financial Group of companies. Hunton & Williams, with about 1,000 lawyers, is providing Janvey with records of its legal work for Stanford that aren’t covered by attorney-client privilege, according to the filing.

In a March 17 letter to Janvey, Robert Rolfe, a Hunton & Williams attorney, said that turning over certain documents related to Stanford personally might violate the privilege, court records show.

Potential for Harm

“Here, the potential for harm to Stanford from a waiver of his fundamental right to control his attorney-client privilege is great given the nature of the charges against him,” Rolfe wrote.

James M. Davis, Stanford’s chief financial officer, is accused of helping direct the fraud. Neither of the two men has been charged with a crime, and Davis is now cooperating with federal investigators, his lawyer said yesterday.

Stanford Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt was charged with criminal obstruction of the investigation and released on $300,000 bond. Her lawyer, Dan Cogdell, has said she is innocent and that she was cooperating with investigators until she was arrested Feb. 26.

Hunton & Williams advised Antigua-based Stanford Trust and Florida-based Stanford Fiduciary Investment Services during a probe by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, in which the units was subpoenaed. The firm also advised Stanford’s Ecuadorian unit on its Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bonds during the New York-based banks bankruptcy case.

Investor Suit

The 108-year-old firm represented Stanford International Bank when it was sued in the U.S. in 2002 by a Mexican investor whose assets in the bank were seized by U.S. authorities as part of a drug-trafficking and money-laundering probe.

The lawsuit, in which the investor sought to hold Stanford responsible for the seizure, was dismissed in 2003 by U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno in Miami. He ruled the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the Antigua-based bank.

Loumiet, the firm’s Miami lawyer, advised the Stanford advisory board beginning in 2007, court records show. The firm also did legal work on Stanford’s $40 million loan to the government of Antigua and Barbuda, it said. All told, the law firm did work for 17 Stanford businesses, mostly in the U.S.

“The receiver’s right to possess and control all receivership property is absolutely necessary if he is to satisfy his duty,” Janvey said in the filing.

In 2007, Hunton & Williams was the 35th-largest grossing U.S. law firm, with revenue of $653.5 million, according to the American Lawyer, a trade magazine. As of May 2007 rankings, it had 931 lawyers. Stanford still owes the firm more than $180,000, Hunton & Williams said in a letter to Janvey.

The case is SEC v. Stanford International Bank, 3:09-cv- 00298, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 25, 2009 17:20 EDT