THE SWINDLE: Former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford was convicted of bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in a major Ponzi scheme.

THE SENTENCE: U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Stanford Thursday to 110 years in prison during a court hearing in which two people spoke on behalf of Stanford’s more than 21,000 investors about how his fraud affected their lives.