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Judge allows Stanford's request on legal fees

A federal judge in Dallas said he will consider a modest request for money to pay lawyers and accountants to look through R. Allen Stanford's personal assets to find money untainted by an alleged $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) fraud.

  • AP
  • Published: 19:44 July 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

Houston: A federal judge in Dallas said he will consider a modest request for money to pay lawyers and accountants to look through R. Allen Stanford's personal assets to find money untainted by an alleged $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) fraud.

The Texas financier asked US district judge David Godbey more than two months ago to order the court-appointed receiver in the Securities and Exchange Commission civil case against him to place $10 million in an escrow account in the name of attorney Dick DeGuerin to cover fees and legal costs.

Godbey said in an order earlier this week that he would "entertain" a modest request to pay lawyers and accountants to help "demonstrate the existence of personal assets unrelated to and untainted by the alleged fraud".

Last month, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted Stanford and three executives of the Stanford Financial Group on charges accusing them of orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme by misusing most of the $7 billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island of Antigua.

"We have not received a penny, yet," DeGuerin told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.

Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver in the SEC case, has asked for $20 million for fees related to the case.

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