Stanford slashes 85% of U.S. employees

The court-appointed lawyer overseeing the assets and operations of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's companies Friday told 1,000 U.S. employees their jobs have been terminated and said most of the firm's operations will be discontinued.

The cuts represent about 85% of Stanford's U.S. employees, U.S. receiver Ralph Janvey said in a statement.

U.S. regulators have have charged Stanford, his two top aides and three of his companies with a long-running $8 billion Ponzi scheme involving high-yield certificates of deposit.

A small number of U.S. employees, most from the company's Houston headquarters, will be retained to assist with the process of winding down the company's operations, Janvey said.

All terminations are effective March 6, so regular salary and benefits will be discontinued immediately and employees will not receive any severance or bonus, Janvey said.