Business

JUDGE DENIES STANFORD’S BAIL

That other accused Ponzi swindler, R. Allen Stanford, will be locked up in a Texas jail without bail for as long as a year as he awaits his day in court.

A federal judge yesterday shot down the 59-year-old financier’s plea to go free on bail, saying Stanford might try to skip town using one of his two passports. One passport is from the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua, where Stanford allegedly bribed officials to help carry out his $7 billion, worldwide swindle.

Calling Stanford a “serious flight risk,” Judge David Hittner revoked the $500,000 bail a federal magistrate had granted to Stanford just last week.

Stanford’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said he’s going to appeal the bail decision because the trial isn’t expected to start for a year.

Stanford has lived for the past 15 years in Antigua, which knighted him, and has jetted around the world in his fleet of private planes.

He’s been behind bars in a federal lockup since last Thursday following his indictment on 21 charges in a Ponzi swindle.

Like confessed con man Bernie Madoff, who was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison, Sanford also faces life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Meanwhile, Britain froze $100 million linked to Stanford’s alleged swindles.

Stanford sought to avoid detection by creating false accounting records, lying to investors and bribing a regulatory official in Antigua, said prosecutors. paul.tharp@nypost.com