CHICAGO (AFP) - A senior executive at the Stanford Financial Group pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of obstructing justice by lying to officials probing an alleged 9.2-billion-dollar fraud by cricket mogul and financier Allen Stanford. Stanford has not faced criminal charges in the alleged Ponzi scheme, but his Houston-based brokerage and offshore banks have been placed in receivership as the civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission proceeds. Chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt is the first Stanford executive to face criminal charges and was indicted on two counts of obstruction. The indictment alleges that she conspired with two unnamed executives and a company lawyer to provide misleading information about the value and content of the banks assets to securities investigators, the US Department of Justice said. It also accuses Pendergest-Holt of lying to investigators about what she knew about the questionable assets. The indictment further alleges that two days after her February 10 false testimony, Pendergest-Holt caused 4.3 million dollars in (Stanford International Bank Ltd) funds to be wire-transferred to SIBLs operating account in Houston, the Justice Department said. Her defense is shes not guilty, her lawyer, Dan Cogdgell, told reporters outside a Houston courthouse. She didnt agree to lie and she didnt lie. The case is the most high-profile alleged fraud scheme since the SEC charged Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff with carrying out a 50-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in December. Madoff pleaded guilty to fraud and faces a prison term of up to 150 years when sentenced in June. Stanford was behind the high-profile Stanford Super Series Twenty20 cricket competition. On February 17, the SEC accused Stanford of fraud in selling 9.2 billion dollars in securities by promising improbable and unsubstantiated returns.