Judge Turns Grinch With Allen Stanford
December 18, 2009
CaribWorldNews, HOUSTON, TX, Fri. Dec. 18, 2009: U.S. District Judge David Hittner was the Grinch that yesterday stole Texas financier R. Allen Stanford`s Christmas.
As if things are not already tough for the former flamboyant investor turned cricket entrepreneur, Judge Hittner yesterday hit the once knighted Antigua resident with news that he will have to spend the next year and a half in jail before a trial date.
Hittner set the earliest trial date for the summer of 2011 even though federal prosecutors wanted to go to trial next September. A grey haired, grey bearded Stanford, shackled and wearing a green prison jump suit, was at the hearing Thursday.
Stanford is accused of bilking investors out of $7 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme that involved the now-defunct Stanford Financial Group and Stanford International Bank of Antigua.
Stanford, 59, has been in custody since June 19, when the government charged him with 21 criminal charges related to the giant ponzi scheme. He has insisted he is innocent.
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