Jury: US can go after US$330-m in Stanford accounts
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas jury cleared the way Thursday for US authorities to go after US$330 million in stolen investor funds sitting in frozen foreign bank accounts controlled by convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford.
The jury, which convicted the former tycoon on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts earlier this week, found there was sufficient evidence the money in 29 accounts in Switzerland, Britain and Canada was some of the more than US$7 billion he stole from investors over 20 years.
US District Judge David Hittner set a June 14 sentencing date for Stanford, who faces up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charges but could be looking at a life behind bars if the judge orders the sentences to run consecutively.
Stanford’s attorneys, Robert Scardino and Ali Fazel, said they plan to appeal his conviction after he is sentenced. They said a gag order limits what they can say about the case, but that one argument they could make would be they weren’t given enough time to prepare their defense. Stanford hired and fired several attorneys before the court appointed his current legal team, which is his fifth.
“Our client spent almost nine months in a mental facility in North Carolina before the trial. We had 30 days with a competent client,” Scardino said. The trial was delayed after Stanford was declared incompetent in January 2011 due to an anti-anxiety drug addiction he developed in jail. He underwent treatment and was declared fit for trial in December.
Scardino said he couldn’t say what Stanford has told him about being convicted.
“It’s hard to know what a man is thinking about when he’s looking at spending the rest of his life in prison,” he said.
Prosecutors say Stanford ran a Ponzi scheme for 20 years in which he used the money from investors who bought certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and support his personal spending habits.
Prosecutors declined to comment after Thursday’s verdict. But prosecutor Gregg Costa said in court Wednesday that “the money we get back is going to go to the victims.”
Thursday’s decision doesn’t guarantee US authorities will get the money, as liquidators appointed by an Antiguan court also are vying for much of it. Authorities say getting the money could take years because each request will have to be evaluated by officials in the countries where the accounts are based.
Three other former Stanford executives are scheduled for trial in September. A former Antiguan financial regulator was indicted and awaits extradition to the US
A US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that also accuses Stanford and his former executives of fraud is pending.