Antigua's biggest bank, Stanford International Bank Ltd, sold certificates of deposit that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

U.S. authorities allege King received "thousands of dollars in bribes" from Stanford to ensure the Antigua regulatory authority "looked the other way" and conducted sham audits of Stanford's operations.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said King, acting as gamekeeper turned poacher, helped Stanford and his associates evade and obstruct U.S. probes of the Stanford business empire for several years.