The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Texas billionaire and three of his companies in an $8 billion fraud scheme. The SEC says Robert Allen Stanford used his Antigua-based bank to defraud investors by selling them phony certificates of deposit. Last year, the Forbes Rich List ranked Stanford the 205th wealthiest person in the United States. The Center for Responsive Politics says Stanford’s lobbying could likely have helped defeat passage of the Financial Services Antifraud Network Act in 2002. The measure would have created a centralized record of banking, insurance and financial regulators to combat fraud. Stanford Financial Group made its most political contributions over the 2001-2002 cycle, when the bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate.