Stanford out of prison hospital
Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford has moved out of a prison
hospital where he was being treated for drug addiction, federal prison
records showed Thursday.
Allen Stanford |
Stanford had been scheduled to stand trial in September for an
alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme, but the hearing was postponed to
sometime in early 2012 after a judge ruled he was temporarily unfit to
stand trial. Government psychiatrists and Stanford's legal team
testified that he was suffering from bouts of delirium linked to his
dependency on powerful anti-anxiety medication.
Depressed
They found the 60-year-old was also depressed due to a brain injury
he sustained during a 2009 jailhouse brawl, and recommended he be weaned
off the drug. The flamboyant Texan has pleaded not guilty to more than a
dozen counts of fraud, money laundering and obstruction. He faces up to
life in prison if convicted.
Stanford is currently being held in a federal prison transfer
facility in Oklahoma. A new trial date has not yet been posted in the
court's system.
A self-described "maverick," Stanford hit international sports
headlines by creating the eponymous Stanford Super Series Twenty20
cricket competition. The $20 million winner-take-all match appalled many
in the cricket world by challenging the sacrosanct traditional cricket
establishment.
Employer
In Antigua, he was a larger-than-life figure, the island's largest
employer and the recipient of a 2006 knighthood. But after the
allegations against him surfaced, much of his support dwindled and the
England and Wales Cricket Board cut ties with him.
Stanford launched a $7.2 billion countersuit in February against
federal agents alleging violations of his civil rights and illegal
prosecution. CHICAGO, Friday (AFP) |