R. Allen Stanford incorporated his own UK business and told a financial adviser it was insuring his first offshore bank, a federal prosecutor said at the financier’s fraud trial.

Assistant US Attorney William Stellmach made that claim yesterday while questioning Michelle Chambliess on the first day of testimony at Stanford’s trial in federal court in Houston. She said it was her securities license that let Stanford open the first Stanford Group Co. office to sell certificates of deposit for his offshore bank.

Stanford is accused of leading a $7 billion scheme centered on the sale of CDs. He’s charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy. The most serious counts carry a maximum prison term of 20 years. US District Judge David Hittner said the trial may last about six weeks.