Allen Stanford Gets Public Defender for Criminal Case

Allen Stanford Gets Public Defender for Criminal Case - 9/15/2009

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News	News 2009
HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

HEADLINE NEWS:

Allen Stanford Gets Public Defender for Criminal Case
Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Andrew M. Harris

Bloomberg. September 15, 2009
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EXCERPT: R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of running a $7 billion investor fraud, will be represented by the federal public defender’s office in his criminal case because he has no money to hire a lawyer. Kent Schaffer, a private attorney in Houston who attended today’s hearing at that city’s federal courthouse, said afterward he will work with the public defender’s office on Stanford’s case. “This case has to get ready for trial,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner said during the proceeding, which lasted less than five minutes. “The man needs an attorney. He’s got an attorney and we need to get ready for trial.” […] Regulators and investors have fought attempts to unlock legal defense funds from Stanford’s seized assets, which were frozen by court order on Feb. 17 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of investor fraud. Stanford is also being denied access to his company’s liability insurance policy, after the court-appointed receiver claimed those funds may be needed to defend Stanford’s companies against lawsuits. Schaffer, in a phone interview, said he met briefly with Stanford in a holding facility at the Houston federal courthouse after today’s hearing, which he attended at the request of the public defender’s office. Stanford “seems to be agreeable’’ to Schaffer becoming his lawyer, he said, pointing out that the public defender’s office still must officially ask Hittner to appoint him. “I don’t typically do public defender cases,’’ Schaffer said, noting that he will be able to charge only the public defender rate of $110 per hour, which he said is “less than a fifth’’ of his standard billing rate. “Sometimes we have to do things without taking money into consideration,’’ he said. “I thought it would be an exciting opportunity, intellectually stimulating, maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity.’’

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