**The former chief financial officer of billionaire Sir Allen Stanford’s empire has pleaded guilty to charges relating to his boss’s alleged $7bn fraud.**James Davis pleaded guilty to two fraud charges and one of obstructing the US financial watchdog’s investigation into Sir Allen.
Sir Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to his charges, is currently in detention awaiting trail.
On Thursday he had to go to hospital for a high pulse rate.
Mr Davis, who has been co-operating with prosecutors under a plea deal, faces a prison term of up to 30 years.
“I did wrong. I’m sorry,” he said outside the courthouse. “I apologize. I take responsibility for my actions.”
‘Defrauded thousands’
Sir Allen surrendered to FBI officers in June, and has remained in custody since that time.
Fraud-charge Stanford in hospital
He faces spending the rest of his life in jail if found guilty on all the fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges he faces.
Sir Allen is accused of defrauding thousands of people who invested in his Stanford International Bank, which is located in Antigua.
US prosecutors said investors were “promised returns that were too good to be true”.
The case represents a rapid fall from grace for Sir Allen, who shot to prominence in the UK and the Caribbean in recent years with his lavish sponsorship of cricket.
His received his knighthood from the Antiguan government in 2006.
Sir Allen, who was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, was taken to a hospital in Conroe, Texas, in the morning due to a high pulse rate and an irregular heart rhythm.