The final two defendants convicted for helping former Texas financier Allen Stanford cover a 7- billion-U.S.-dollar Ponzi scheme were sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison each.

Stanford Financial Group's former accounting chief Gilbert Lopez, 70, and former global controller Mark Kuhrt, 40, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston.

The two were convicted last November of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire frauds.

Prosecutors said both Lopez and Kuhrt knew Stanford was misusing the assets of a bank controlled by him, but helped him hide the fraud by misrepresenting to investors in reports and other documents that their money was safe.

Lawyers for both defendants had asked for shorter sentences, but were declined.

Before Lopez sand Kuhrt, former Stanford investment chief Laura Pendergest-Holt was sentenced to three years in prison. Former chief financial officer James M. Davis also received a five-year sentence. Stanford himself was sentenced to 110 years in prison. The Texan was once considered one of the richest persons in the United States with an estimated net worth of about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2009, he and his co-defendants were charged with engaging in a scheme to defraud investors who bought roughly 7 billion U.S. dollars in certificates of deposit administered by Stanford International Bank Ltd., the bank in Antigua controlled by Stanford.