Judge delays financier Stanford's release on bond

ByABC News
June 29, 2009, 1:36 PM

HOUSTON -- A federal judge says he will decide by Tuesday afternoon on whether to revoke a bond for Texas financier R. Allen Stanford that would let him be free while he awaits trial on charges he swindled investors out of $7 billion.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner heard more than four hours of arguments Monday in which prosecutors asked him to revoke an order granting Stanford a $500,000 bond. They argued his international ties make him a serious flight risk.

But Dick DeGuerin, Stanford's attorney, says his client, who is broke because all his assets have been seized, has a very strong incentive to stay: to clear his name and restore his finances.

Hittner on Friday granted a prosecution request to delay a magistrate's order granting Stanford a $500,000 bond. Prosecutors say they believe Stanford, who holds Antiguan citizenship and was once considered one of the richest men in America, is a flight risk.

If not for Hittner's decision, Stanford would have been released from custody on Friday, as court records show the $100,000 in cash needed for his bond had been paid.

Hittner ordered a hearing for Monday to hear arguments on whether Stanford's bond should be revoked. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Hittner's decision.

Dick DeGuerin, Stanford's attorney, said his client is not a flight risk and wants to stay and fight the charges.

"Allen Stanford has been spending the months since [the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] first accused him meeting with lawyers in Houston and Washington, D.C., preparing for the fight ahead of him," DeGuerin wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "I'm confident that when the truth comes out a fair jury will find that Allen Stanford did not defraud anyone."

Stanford and three executives of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group are accused of orchestrating a fraud by misusing most of the $7 billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in Antigua.