RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news starts with another billionaire in court.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Allen Stanford once presided over a small banking empire in the Caribbean. Today he's in leg chains and handcuffs in a federal court in Houston today. The Texas financier faces charges of fraud and conspiracy. Authorities say his banking operation was really a Ponzi scheme that swindled investors out of billions of dollars. Stanford is expected to deny the charges.
Indicted Texas financier Allen Stanford is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Houston on charges he cheated investors out of $7 billion. Stanford previously has said he is not guilty of running a Ponzi scheme.