A court-ordered assets freeze may cost Laura Pendergest-Holt the Baldwyn home her family has owned for generations, a U.S. District Court document states.

"Ms. Holt's experience confirms that it is not easy to live in our society without access to any money," her attorney has told the court in Dallas. The home "is on the path to foreclosure because she cannot make the mortgage payments."

Holt is the former chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group, and her finances were frozen in February when the Securities amp& Exchange Commission accused her and other SFG executives of masterminding a massive fraud to bilk thousands of investors out of nearly $8 billion.

They also are accused of criminal charges in the alleged scheme.

She insists she is not guilty and is asking the federal court not to allow a hold on providing her with information for the civil case against her and the others while the criminal case proceeds in Houston.

Such a stay, she says, completely ignores "the undeniable hardship of a complete asset freeze," the impact on her ability to find employment and her Sixth Amendment right to counsel because the court-appointed receiver blocked her access to a Stanford insurance policy that could pay her legal fees.

In asking for a hold on providing the defendants with its information, the Department of Justice wants to avoid showing its hand before the criminal trial because civil-trial "discovery" is not as limited as in a criminal case.

DOJ says because the criminal case involves virtually all of the same issues, parties and witnesses as the SEC complaint, providing the more expansive information in the civil case "would jeopardize the ongoing criminal prosecution of the defendants."

Holt's arguments to the court were filed in Dallas last week.

The document also notes that when U.S. marshals raided her home last March, they carried off family mail, personal papers unrelated to the SEC case, as well as several years of her husband's tax returns that pre-dated their marriage. The receiver's lawyers also seized one of the family's cars and drove off in it.

She and co-defendants, including CEO Allen Stanford, are due in Houston court Sept. 10 for a status conference in the criminal case.

James M. Davis of Baldwyn, SFG's former chief operating officer, is expected to plead guilty to separate criminal charges in Houston next week.

Contact Patsy R. Brumfield at (662) 678-1596 or patsy.brumfield@djournal.com.