“ALLEN STANFORD WANTS 2 YEAR DELAY TO PREPARE FOR TRIAL”
FROM THE -
JOURNALS of Monte Friesner ~ Monday December 27, 2010 >
Financial Crime Consultant for WANTED SA >
WANTED SA has learned this morning that lawyers representing Allen Stanford advised a Federal Judge they need at least two years to prepare for the accused swindler's upcoming trial, citing their client's health and lack of access to documents.
Stanford's attorneys, Ali Fazel and Robert Scardino, also said in a court filing they need more time to adequately prepare the complex case for trial, because they were assigned to it only two months ago.
Stanford, 60, is due to go on trial on Jan. 24. He is accused of defrauding investors from the United States, Latin America, Canada and Europe in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme run through his offshore bank in Antigua.
One roadblock is a computer database containing more than 20 million pages of documents that Stanford and his legal team must review, the lawyers said in motion filed in federal court in Houston on Thursday.
Because Stanford has no Internet access, "the only material the accused has reviewed is a hand full of documents that have been printed and delivered by counsel," the motion said.
Other attorneys who have represented Stanford have complained that the former billionaire has limited access to materials for his trial. He has been held since September 2009 at the federal jail in Houston.
Fazel and Scardino said in their request for a trial delay that Stanford is on medication that causes "simple matters such as prolonged reading to become arduous."
Additionally, Stanford says he is partially blind in his right eye, a lingering effect from a jailhouse fight that sent the Texas financier to the hospital in September 2009.
In a filing earlier this month, Stanford's attorneys sought his release by arguing that their client is on so much medication that it has rendered him unable to prepare for trial.
Judge David Hittner, who is overseeing Stanford's criminal case, granted a prosecutor's motion last week that he be examined by a psychiatrist of their choosing to determine the defendant's competency.
The case is is USA v. Stanford et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 09-00342. The docket lists Ali Fazel and Robert Scardino of Houston and Lee Shidlofsky of Austin as representing Stanford.
WANTED SA kindly thanks Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, Associated Press, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces who have contributed to this article and their sincere opinions and statements.
