Former Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, the man convicted of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 110 years in prison on Thursday.

In March, the 62-year-old businessman was convicted on 13 charges including fraud and conspiracy by using fake certificates of deposit sold by his offshore bank in Antigua to bilk thousands of investors out of their savings.

Stanford has denied defrauding anyone and blamed the US government for ruining his business, saying: "They destroyed it and turned it to nothing."

"Stanford was a real brick-and-mortar global financial empire."

District Judge David Hittner said Stanford's actions were one of the most "egregious criminal frauds."

One victim, Angela Shaw, told the court that Stanford "stole more than millions. He stole our lives as we knew them".

Cassie Wilkinson, another victim, said he had shown no remorse: "His statement was just pathetic. It was all about Allen Stanford," she said.

"It was repulsive and speaks a lot about who he really is."

Prosecutors had asked for a 230-year sentence due to the severity of the crimes. Stanford's attorneys had asked for a sentence of about three years, the same amount of time the 62-year-old has already spent in federal custody.