Allen Stanford Indies all-star XI, with a total prize fund of £12.27 million (US$20 million) to be awarded to the team that won the Championship. It was the largest prize ever offered to a team for a single tournament. This was in jeopardy after a row with Digicel, the sponsors of the West Indies cricket team, who were unhappy about sponsorship of the event. Eventually, the dispute was sorted out and the championship was won by Stanford Superstars, who defeated the England team by 10 wickets. On February 17, 2009, when news of the fraud investigation became public, the ECB and WICB
Allen Stanford said that Stanford and his accomplices operated a "massive Ponzi scheme", misappropriating billions of dollars of investors' money and falsifying the Stanford International Bank's records to hide their fraud. "Stanford International Bank's financial statements, including its investment income, are fictional," the SEC said. In an interview on April 20 at the law offices of Houston criminal attorney Dick DeGuerin, Stanford denied any wrongdoing. His companies had been well-run, he claimed, until the SEC "disembowelled" them. On June 18, 2009, Stanford was taken into custody by FBI agents. On June 25, 2009, he appeared in a Houston court and pleaded not