Singh astonished by Stanford charges

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

PACIFIC PALISADES, California (Reuters) - Former world number one Vijay Singh expressed astonishment on Wednesday as fallout from U.S. fraud charges against Texas billionaire Allen Stanford rippled across the globe.

Stanford and two other top executives at Stanford Financial Group were accused on Tuesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of fraudulently selling $8 billion (5.6 billion pounds) in high-yield certificates of deposit.

Singh, a three-times major winner, has an endorsement deal with Stanford and is the global ambassador for a charity initiative on the PGA Tour created by Stanford Financial Group.

"I am just surprised by it all and I really don't have any comments," Fijian Singh, wearing a golf shirt with a Stanford logo, told Reuters on the eve of Thursday's opening round at the Northern Trust Open.

"He has done so much for charity and St Jude is his big thing. He gives a lot to charity there and also to a lot of other places. I hope everything will be okay once they find out what's going on."

Eagles for St. Jude, set up by Stanford Financial Group, raises money from every eagle recorded on the PGA Tour in donations to St. Jude, one of the world's premier paediatric cancer research centres.

Singh, along with fellow players Camilo Villegas and Morgan Pressel, has heavily promoted the programme and last year donated $300,000 to St. Jude for the eagles he personally carded on the 2008 Tour.

ALL ASSUMPTION