It might not be the Greatest Show on Earth but the legal circus in the US$7 billion ($10.17 billion) fraud case against jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is possibly making it the greatest show in court.
So far, the criminal and civil cases against Stanford have included claims of bloated legal fees by a small army of lawyers and law clerks; a judge admonishing attorneys like an primary school teacher to stop calling each other names; allegations of insurance fraud and conflicts of interest.
Stanford has argued with judges, been labelled as difficult and been accused of wasting millions of dollars by hiring and firing attorneys from at least 10 different law firms.
The antagonism among attorneys in a lawsuit filed by Stanford and his three co-defendants to ensure an insurance policy pays for their legal fees is palpable.
Barry Chasnoff, an attorney for insurer Lloyd’s of London, said Stanford’s attorney, Bob Bennett, was being abusive by calling him “stingy”, “greedy” and “immoral” in emails. Bennett said he was flooding Chasnoff with emails because Lloyd’s has to pre-approve “every little thing we do”.
“I just think name calling is juvenile and unnecessary. I will just stay out of the squabbles,” US District Judge Nancy Atlas, who presiding over the lawsuit, told the attorneys.
Despite all of these legal fireworks, the main attraction – Stanford’s criminal trial – is still nearly seven months away.
Bennett insists this is all in the past. He’s focused on his client’s case and not what’s been written about it.
“The important thing is we are moving past that,” said Bennett, a former federal prosecutor. “We are looking forward to the date when we can put all this evidence in front of a jury.”
Stanford and former company executives Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilbert Lopez and Mark Kuhrt are accused of orchestrating a colossal pyramid scheme by advising clients from 113 countries to invest more than US$7 billion in certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua, promising huge returns. Stanford’s businesses were headquartered in Houston.
Authorities say Stanford and the executives fabricated the bank’s records, bribed Antiguan regulators with investors’ money from a secret Swiss bank account and misused funds to pay for Stanford’s lavish lifestyle.
Stanford and the executives have denied various charges, including money laundering, wire and mail fraud. Stanford is also fighting a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed in Dallas that makes similar allegations.
Since his arrest last year, Stanford has run through a plethora of high-profile attorneys, including Dick DeGuerin and Kent Schaffer of Houston.
Some left the case because there was no guarantee they would get paid. Authorities have seized all assets belonging to Stanford, once considered one of the wealthiest Americans with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion.
Other attorneys have left because they said Stanford was too difficult a client. Schaffer, who left the case in March, expressed displeasure at having to attend a recent legal proceeding. Another of Stanford’s attorneys, Michael Essmyer, asked to withdraw from the case, citing “irreconcilable differences” between him and Bennett.
Bennett brushed aside criticism directed at his client and himself. He defended the more than US$6 million Stanford has spent so far on legal fees, saying some of the previous attorneys didn’t understand the complexity of the cases or they were just wasteful.
Bennett argues Stanford’s restrictive conditions at the Federal Detention Centre in Houston prevent him from adequately preparing for trial.
In court, Stanford has complained about a lack of internet access, how he’s “maxed out” on storage space for legal documents in his cell, that his working tools are a “Bic pen and a legal pad” and that he’s allowed to meet with his attorneys in only one room.
“Two guards watch me like I’m some murderer,” Stanford said. “I’m at the limit of my physical and mental capacity to work in that environment.”
Stanford also complains that a prison fight last year has left him blind in one eye, he’s had surgery to repair a non-life-threatening aneurism in his leg, takes seven medications, including antidepressants, and claims to have memory gaps.
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