LEDES 1: U.S. Accuses Texas Financial Firm of $8 Billion Fraud

"HOUSTON — Stopping what it called a “massive ongoing fraud,” the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday accused Robert Allen Stanford, the chief of the Stanford Financial Group, of fraud in the sale of about $8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit held in the firm’s bank in Antigua. Also named in the suit were two other executives and some affiliates of the financial group."

Here is a hard news item from the NY Times today. The lede contains the who (Securities and Exchange Commission), the what (accused the chief of the Stanford Financial Group of fraud in the sale...), the when (Tuesday), and the where (Houston). This lede is straight-forward and effective; the reader receives enough information to fully understand the players, the playing field, and time frame involved, but not enough to stop reading. The lede reveals that enormous amount of money-- $8 billion-- is involved, but begs the question of why exactly the sale was fraudulent. This is a cut and dry example of a basic news lede-- there's not much else to say about it. Though, after reading through the rest of the article, it might be a more intriguing piece if the author anecdotally described the arrest of Robert Allen Stanford in the lede.