On-the-Lam Alleged Houston Defrauder Found In Va.

4:47 P.M.: UPDATED WITH FBI STATEMENT:

R. Allen Stanford, who is accused by the SEC of carrying out a $9.2 billion fraud at his Houston-based Standford Group and has been missing for days, has been found by the FBI near Fredericksburg, Va.

Here's the FBI statement just released:

"On February 19, 2009, at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Division located and identified Stanford Financial Group chairman Allen Stanford in the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area. The agents served Mr. Stanford with court orders related to the SEC civil filing against the Stanford Financial Group."

NBC broke the news moments ago that Stanford had been found.

The Post's Zach Goldfarb wrote today that Stanford is being looked at as a potential launderer of drug money.

Stanford was offering certificates of deposit that promised twice the normal yield.

New York's Bernie Madoff confessed in December to running what he described as a $50 billion Ponzi scheme masquerading as an investment fund paying high returns.

-- Frank Ahrens
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