Texas: Sir Allen Stanford charged for fraud

[The Doctor]

And it appears he does not play well with others.

Allen Stanford Hospitalized After Fight With Another Inmate

CONROE, Texas — A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman says jailed Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford is being treated at a hospital after being injured during a fight with another inmate.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez said Stanford was being treated Friday after a Thursday altercation at the private Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe about 40 miles north of Houston.

Perez says the 59-year-old's injuries aren't life threatening but declined to discuss details of the altercation. He says the incident is under investigation.

Stanford attorney Kent Schaffer says he hadn't talked with his client as of Friday evening but had been told the injuries aren't serious.

Stanford is charged with bilking investors of the now defunct Stanford Financial Group of more than $7 billion.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_300653.html

[Jessica]

"I would die and go to hell if it's a Ponzi scheme," Stanford said...

Welcome home Allen. You're breaking our hearts.

Jail Has Reduced Allen Stanford To A Depressed, Half-Blind, 'Wreck Of A Man,' Says Lawyer

JUAN A. LOZANO | 05/18/10 06:37 PM | AP
HOUSTON — Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's attorneys said Tuesday that jail has reduced their client to a "wreck of a man" who is severely depressed, forgets conversations, can no longer see out of one eye and believes he is "losing his mind."

The description of Stanford's mental and physical condition was contained in a motion filed by his attorneys asking a federal judge, for a third time, to grant the jailed financier a bond so he can be free while awaiting his trial. Stanford is due to go on trial in January on charges he bilked investors out of $7 billion as part of a massive Ponzi scheme.

The latest motion was prepared with the help of Harvard law professor and celebrity defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a consultant hired by Stanford.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston has denied two previous requests to grant Stanford a bond, agreeing with federal prosecutors that he is a serious flight risk. An appeals court has upheld Hittner's rulings.

Hittner did not rule on the merits of the motion. But late Tuesday, the judge removed the motion from the record for not following court rules, including being typed in 14 point font and being double spaced, meaning it will have to be resubmitted.

In the 36-page motion, Robert Bennett, one of Stanford's attorneys, described the financier as a healthy individual when he surrendered to authorities on June 18, 2009, the day he was indicted.

"Now, nearly one year in detention later, Mr. Stanford's incarceration has reduced him to a wreck of a man," Bennett wrote. "Mr. Stanford has experienced ... a precipitate, severe and ongoing deterioration of his mental and emotional health caused by the conditions of his confinement."

Bennett said Stanford can no longer see out of his right eye or feel anything on the right side of his face after he was beaten by an inmate last year.

He said Stanford is in the "throes of a major depression" which is getting worse. Bennett said Stanford falls into "mental black holes," forgets conversations and stares blankly into space when talking to his attorneys, has an uncontrolled tremor in his left hand and seems to be in a drug-induced stupor due to antidepressants and other medications he is taking.

In an affidavit accompanying the motion, Evelyn Saravia, one of Stanford's friends and a legal assistant helping him on his case, said the financier before his arrest was a "sharp and intelligent" individual who was well-groomed, health conscious and full of energy. Stanford's worth had been estimated at more than $2 billion.

But Saravia said Stanford is now "depressed, tired and appears medicated" and confided in her that he sometimes feels he is "losing his mind."

Bennett said Stanford's deteriorating health is preventing him from fully assisting his attorneys in preparing for trial.

The attorney also criticized the conditions at the Federal Detention Center in Houston, where Stanford is being held. Bennett said the financier can only review a portion of the millions of documents in his case because he doesn't have Internet access and he is only allowed to keep a limited number of documents in his cell.

A spokeswoman with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the detention center, declined to comment on Stanford's motion, as did a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

In the motion, Bennett said Stanford's constitutional rights are being violated as his continued detention is excessive and simply punishment and is preventing him from assisting in his defense.

Stanford and three executives of his now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group are accused of orchestrating a colossal pyramid scheme by advising clients to invest more than $7 billion in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island of Antigua and then misusing the money, in part to pay for Stanford's lavish lifestyle.

Stanford and the executives have pleaded not guilty to various charges, including money laundering, wire and mail fraud, in a 21-count indictment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_581610.html

[Sphinx]

.....has reduced their client to a "wreck of a man" who is severely depressed, forgets conversations, can no longer see out of one eye and believes he is "losing his mind."

I wonder how his victims feel?

[Quark]

I imagine his victims get depressed, forget conversations, and might think they are losing their minds.

[Templar]

Broke, sick and lonely, Allen Stanford heads to court
By Anna Driver and Eileen O'Grady

HOUSTON (Reuters) - No one calls him Sir Allen Stanford anymore. He is inmate number 35017-183.

On Monday, the Texas financier heads to court in Houston to battle charges that he operated a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from Stanford International Bank Ltd, his offshore bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By all accounts, his was a life of luxury, filled with private jets, yachts, mansions and the sport of cricket.

Deemed a flight risk in June 2009 by a federal judge, the 6-foot billionaire has been in jail, sporting prison-issue green and orange jumpsuits and shackles instead of the dark, tailor-made suits he once ordered in bulk.

Stanford, a native Texan who was knighted by the government of Antigua in 2006, is accused of misleading investors about certificates of deposit (CDs) issued by his offshore bank, in one of the biggest white collar fraud cases since Bernard Madoff.

The CDs were touted as safe, with funds "generally invested in investment grade bonds, securities and foreign currency deposit," according to literature distributed by Stanford's brokerage firm.

Instead, prosecutors allege, Stanford invested CD proceeds in illiquid pet-project investments that included Caribbean real estate, a Cowboys and Indians magazine and a pawn shop operator. He also loaned more than $2 billion to himself.

The alleged Ponzi scheme started to unravel in late 2008 as the financial crisis deepened and more and more investors asked for redemptions, a situation that left Stanford scrambling for cash.

Prosecutors will likely rely heavily on the testimony of the firm's former Chief Financial Officer James Davis, who pleaded guilty in August 2009 and has been cooperating with the government. The two men were college roommates at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

In past interviews, Stanford has blamed Davis, a theme that is likely to be repeated by the defense at trial.

"I didn't oversee anything in the investment portfolio, that was the CFO's responsibility," Stanford told Reuters in a 2009 interview. "The CFO had investment committees, the chief investment officer reports to him."

Stanford, 61, has pleaded not guilty to 14 criminal counts of fraud, obstruction of a federal investigation and conspiracy to launder money.

Among the alleged crimes prosecutors expect to prove to the Houston jury is that Stanford was involved in falsifying financial statements and made false statements about Stanford International Bank's financial condition.

PAUPER IN LOVE

Stanford's health has declined since his arrest. He was injured in a jailhouse brawl in 2009 and suffered from an addiction to a powerful anti-anxiety medication. He has hepatitis B and cirrhosis of the liver, and, if convicted, will likely spend he rest of his life in prison.

The SEC seized all of Stanford's assets in February 2009 after filing a civil lawsuit. His lawyer at the time, Dick DeGuerin, said the government's action did not even leave enough money for his client to buy underwear.

Once No. 205 on Forbes' list of richest Americans, Stanford's defense is paid for with U.S. tax dollars and his 81-year-old mother is struggling to help.

"I've maxed out my credit cards and I'm on my last few thousand dollars of savings," said Sammie Stanford.

She even had to do a reverse mortgage on her home "to get some extra cash," she said in December after a court hearing.

After his arrest, Stanford had a bevy of women, four of whom are mothers of his six children, attend his court hearings. He had a "fiancee" half his age even though he remains legally married.

Stanford lavished the women in his life with trips on private jets, luxury homes and, in one instance, spousal support payments of $100,000 per month, according to court documents.

His oldest daughter, Randi, lived in a luxury Houston high-rise paid for by her father, for whom she worked.

Court records from a 2007 paternity case, that was settled, showed Stanford also paid about $150,000 a year in child support for two other children who lived with their mother in a $10 million house in Florida.

But now, in addition to losing his fortune, Stanford has only the support of his parents and family and not the harem of loyalists seen earlier.

Only his mother lasted through the entire three days of testimony last month at a hearing in which Stanford was judged competent to stand trial.

The man who once ran a business with operations in 140 countries has different priorities now. In a recent court hearing he could be heard complaining about being served a peanut butter sandwich on stale bread.

The case is USA v. Robert Allen Stanford, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, No. 09-cr-00342. (Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/broke-...122429951.html

[Templar]

Stanford trial starts, cold comfort for investors
ReutersBy Anna Driver | Reuters – 1 hour 1 minute ago

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The trial of Allen Stanford, which started on Monday, promises the twists and turns of a best-selling crime novel. But it will offer little solace to investors who lost their money and it may prove uncomfortable for regulators and law enforcers who failed to prevent the alleged fraud.

Prosecutors accuse Stanford of issuing $7 billion in fraudulent certificates of deposit through his Antigua-based bank and then bilking investors out of their money. Stanford, who faces 14 counts of fraud, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering, has denied any wrongdoing.

Investors have recovered nothing in the two and a half years since he was arrested.

"While we would all like to see Stanford convicted, the real justice for the victims is getting their savings back," said Angela Shaw, who leads a group of investors trying to recover money.

Shaw says the investors' best shot is a separate lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the Securities Investor Protection Corp (SIPC), a fund paid for by the brokerage industry.

The SEC wants the fund to accept claims from Stanford's investors, while the fund says it has no authority over the Stanford case. Arguments in that case start in federal court in Washington on Tuesday.

As jury selection began on Monday, Stanford, 61, stood and peered intently at a pool of 80 jurors as they filed into a federal courtroom in Houston. He wore a rumpled light grey suit, a blue shirt and no tie in his first court appearance in street clothes since his arrest in June 2009.

Judge David Hittner came down from the bench to question potential jurors, explaining that he wanted the process to be less formal. Stanford sat looking grim.

Questioning by the judge turned up two jurors who had ties to Stanford businesses. One man worked as a copywriter for a firm that produced literature for Houston-based brokerage Stanford Financial Group, while another man went to Antigua to try to recover Stanford assets on that island. Jury selection was set to continue on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said Stanford's scheme included Swiss bank accounts, a blood oath meant to keep Antigua's financial regulator silent, and an eleventh-hour flight to Libya by Stanford and his girlfriend.

"It's like living in the middle of a John Grisham novel and every day is a new chapter," Shaw said of the case against Stanford.

Stanford spent the proceeds on luxury homes, expensive cars and women, according to prosecutors. Some of those assets are tied up in legal proceedings in Antigua.

The prosecutors have sought to keep the SIPC out of the trial, arguing that the agency's decision not to cover the losses was irrelevant. But, at a hearing before the trial, Hittner overruled a government motion that would keep the SIPC's decision off-limits during the case.

UNDER SCRUTINY

Also likely to come up at the trial are details of how U.S. government agencies monitored Stanford for years, investigating suspicions ranging from fraud to laundering drug money for Mexican cartels.

Yet no charges, civil or criminal, were filed until a few months after Bernard Madoff confessed to running a massive Ponzi scheme.

At one time or another, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Postal Inspector, the SEC and the Secret Service all took a look at Stanford's operations, according a report by the SEC's inspector general in March 2010.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received complaints from customers and Stanford employees, and the agency was aware since 1997 that Stanford was likely operating a Ponzi scheme, the inspector general found.

A primary reason the SEC did not vigorously pursue the case involved the way officials at its Fort Worth office perceived they were judged by higher-ups in Washington, the report said. According to the report, Forth Worth was encouraged to take less-complex, "slam-dunk" cases rather than complex cases like Stanford.

"The nature of this case is one that naturally will breed a microscopic review of the history of Allen Stanford investigations and why was he not charged sooner," said Jacob Frenkel, a former federal criminal prosecutor who is an attorney at Shuman Rogers. "But there is inherent problem in Monday morning quarterbacking. A fair analysis requires what information was known at the time and what the response was to that information."

When Stanford's lawyers were seeking to prove during court proceedings that his business was legitimate, they often argued that his broker dealer and investment advisory firm, Stanford Group Co, was regulated and registered with the SEC and other watchdogs, which had so far only fined the firm for minor penalties.

"The defense is going to try and blame it all on the government, who had the opportunity to stop this and didn't," said Ross Albert, partner at Moss, Manning & Martin and a former lawyer with the SEC.

Stanford's attorneys have said that he is unfit for trial after a severe jailhouse beating and an addiction to anti-anxiety medication. Prosecutors have fought to keep those details out of the trial, arguing that they were not relevant. One of Stanford's attorneys, Robert Scardino, said last week that he fully intended for Stanford to take the stand so jurors can determine for themselves whether he was fit for trial.

(Reporting by Anna Driver; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Eddie Evans, Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/stanford-tr...XN0Aw--;_ylv=3

[Central Scrutinizer]

"I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn't defraud anybody."

Too bad Allen. Better luck with the next jury.


14 June 2012 Last updated at 18:48 GMT

Allen Stanford jailed for 110 years for $7bn Ponzi

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18450893

Disgraced tycoon Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7bn (£4.5bn).

The scheme was described as one of the largest in US history.

In court, Stanford denied any guilt, telling the judge at his sentencing hearing: "I did not defraud anybody."

A Texan banker, Stanford rose to prominence outside the US when he bankrolled international cricket competitions in the UK and Caribbean.

But after the collapse of his agreement to stage Twenty20 cricket in England, his financial empire began to crumble amid investigations by US regulators.

Forbes Magazine listed him as the 605th richest man in the world in 2006.

However, since his arrest in 2009 he has spent three years in detention after being denied bail.

Shifting blame
Stanford's Ponzi scheme centred on his banking operation based in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.

Some 30,000 individual investors were swindled, it was alleged. Prosecutors failed to find as much as 92% of the assets Stanford International Bank claimed to have.

In his statement in court on Thursday, which ran for some 40 minutes, he told the judge: "I'm not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy.

"I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn't defraud anybody."

US District Judge David Hittner, who presided over Stanford's trial, called Stanford's actions "egregious criminal frauds" during the hearing.

Two victims of the scheme spoke during the hearing, including Angela Shaw, who told the court Stanford was worse than convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff because he preyed on middle-class investors.

"He stole more than millions," Ms Shaw said. "He stole our lives as we knew them."

His sentence is 40 years shorter than the jail term handed down to Madoff, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to a Ponzi scheme targeting wealthy investors.

Stanford was convicted in March on 13 of 14 charges against him, despite his lawyers attempting to shift most of the blame on his chief financial officer.

Prosecutors had asked for a 230-year sentence, with defence lawyers arguing for a lenient term of 44 months.

Three other former executives at Stanford's company are awaiting trial, while a former Antiguan financial regulator is expected to be extradited to the US for related charges.

While a jury has cleared the way for access to about $330m in stolen funds sitting in Stanford's frozen bank accounts across Canada, England and Switzerland, legal wrangling could make it years before investors recover any of that money.

[Miyuki]

Does he go into Name that Scammer now?

He's convicted but let's wait and see if he appeals.