Stanford Tries, Fails to Surrender at Courthouse (Update1)

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Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, accused by regulators of running an $8 billion fraud, went to the U.S. Marshal’s office in the Houston federal courthouse, where he tried unsuccessfully to surrender.

“We said he’s here to surrender, if you’ve got a warrant,” Stanford’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said after the 10- minute visit today. “They said they don’t have a warrant and couldn’t take him.”

Stanford, 59, was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission along with two employees on Feb. 17, on allegations they ran a “massive ongoing fraud” through the sale of high- yield certificates of deposit using Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. Stanford denies any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with a crime.


“I wanted to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not a flight risk,” DeGuerin said in a phone interview. “He wants to face this. He’s not going to hide, and there’s no need to come after him. They’re already following him wherever he goes, so I’m calling them out on it.”

Two days after the SEC lawsuit was filed, federal agents served Stanford at the home of his fiancée in rural Virginia. DeGuerin said Stanford has since leased a condominium near downtown Houston, where he is relocating to assist in his defense.

Ian McCaleb, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment on Stanford’s courthouse visit.

Obstruction Charge

Laura Pendergest-Holt, 35, Stanford Group Co.’s chief investment officer, was charged with criminal obstruction of the investigation. Her lawyer, Dan Cogdell, said she is innocent and has agreed to extend the government’s deadline to formally indict her until May 12.

James M. Davis, 60, Stanford’s chief financial officer, is cooperating with investigators and in plea negotiations, according to his lawyer, David Finn.

DeGuerin said he’s never escorted a client to the U.S. Marshal’s office to surrender before an indictment was handed down. He said he hoped the gesture would persuade the government to allow Stanford to self-surrender if he is criminally charged, rather than be arrested and led into the courthouse in handcuffs.

“The only reason for a perp walk is to prejudice the potential jury pool, so they can show those pictures over and over again,” DeGuerin said.

The case is SEC v. Stanford International Bank, 3:09-cv-00298-N, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston at [email protected] .

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ala8.F6xxLyA

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