Stanford Failed Every Mental Test for Uncovering Fakes, Doctor Testifies

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Dec 20, 2011 2:22 PM GMT-0400

R. Allen Stanford, the accused financier claiming he’s mentally unfit to stand trial next month, failed every test designed to expose fakers, a government psychologist testified.

“When it comes to the amnesia, I’m convinced that complaint is malingered,” Dr. Robert E. Cochrane, a staff psychologist at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ medical center in Butner, North Carolina, said today at a hearing in federal court in Houston.

Depending on a ruling by U.S. District Judge David Hittner, Stanford, 61, will undergo further treatment or face a trial Jan. 23 on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that cost investors more than $7 billion and might put him prison for the rest of his life. Cochrane was the government’s first witness.

Stanford claims he can’t recall family vacations, his business dealings or romantic encounters with women because “59 years were stolen” by a jailhouse beating and anxiety drugs, the government said in court papers. The government says he is faking.

Stanford arrived in court today shackled, looking thin and alert in green prison clothes. He smiled at family members in the back of the courtroom after greeting his attorney and the lead prosecutor, saying softly, “Good Christmas.”

On every neuropsychological test designed to unmask feigning, “Mr. Stanford failed,” Cochrane said, “and that was pretty strong evidence he was exaggerating the memory loss.”

Rare Condition

The claim of complete retrograde amnesia, loss of the memory of things that happened before the event that caused it, is “remarkable” because the condition is so rare, the doctor said.

“ It happens so infrequently it’s hardly documented in the medical literature,” he said.

He said Stanford’s purported amnesia didn’t fit the pattern, because his memory was normal immediately after the jailhouse beating that his lawyers say caused the condition, then supposedly deteriorated when he arrived at the medical center more than a year later.

“ If the head injury was the source of his amnesia, how could he remember then and not now?” Cochrane asked. “You have amnesia right after the head injury, not after a delay.”

Stanford, the doctor said, performed so poorly on certain memory tests that “mentally retarded children did much better” on them.

Defense Filing

Ali R. Fazel, one of Stanford’s attorneys, said in a filing before the hearing that doctors’ testimony will show the Texas financier suffered a traumatic brain injury in jail made worse by “the cocktail of medications” administered in the federal lockup.

Hittner today ruled that Stanford’s former lawyer and mother, listed as witnesses by the defense, won’t be allowed to testify.

The judge said he’ll hear from “only the treating doctors” who can address Stanford’s ability to proceed to trial.

Stanford has been imprisoned as a flight risk since his June 2009 indictment on charges of defrauding investors through a scheme built on allegedly bogus certificates of deposit at Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

Prosecutors say Stanford skimmed more than $1 billion of investor funds to acquire fleet of jets and yachts, multiple mansions and a private Caribbean island, as well as to give money to women with whom he had children.

Hittner delayed Stanford’s trial, first set for last January, after three doctors testified that the financier was incapable of assisting in his defense because of his drug dependency and potential effects from the head injury.

The case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09-cr-342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

Stanford competent for trial, government says

R. Allen Stanford (Bloomberg News)
(Updates with filing from Stanford’s attorneys.)

Government prosecutors say jailed former billionaire R. Allen Stanford is competent to stand trial next month. Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department will argue at a hearing next week that Stanford’s trial, coming almost three years after the collapse of his financial empire, should go forward.

Stanford, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2009, became addicted to painkillers while recovering from injuries sustained in a fight with another inmate. At the time, doctors determined that Stanford was unable to understand the 14 criminal charges pending against him.

He was set to a treatment program at the Bureau of Prisons’ facility in Butner, N.C. On Nov. 4, eight months after he entered the program, Stanford was released after doctors determined he had “regained his competence.”

Stanford’s attorneys, in a separate court filing today, argue that he “suffered a traumatic brain injury due to the assault” and that the “cocktail of medications” administered to him in prison exacerbated his medical condition.

Prosecutors claim that Stanford is faking his memory loss, which he claims has essentially erased all memories of his life before the prison assault.

For much of his time in Butner, Stanford was “alert, lucid and oriented,” and as recently as September he exhibited no difficulty in discussing recent world news, the government said in its filing.

As a result, the government claims Stanford’s “cognitive abilities are not significantly impaired.”

Stanford, who has maintained his innocence, is accused of running a massive international Ponzi scheme that bilked as many as 20,000 investors out of more than $7 billion

Allen Stanford Mental Fitness Hearing Scheduled for Dec. 20

By Andrew Harris and Laurel Brubaker Calkins

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of leading a $7 billion investment fraud, faces a Dec. 20 hearing to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial next year.

Stanford, 61, returned to Houston earlier this month after a nearly nine-month stay at a U.S. Bureau of Prisons hospital at Butner, North Carolina. He was treated there for a dependency on anti-anxiety drugs given to him in prison and evaluated for the after-effects of a head injury sustained in a jailhouse assault.

Houston U.S. District Judge David Hittner today scheduled the competency hearing to determine if Stanford can assist in his defense. In a separate order, the judge said Stanford’s criminal trial would start with jury selection on Jan. 23.

The former chairman and chief executive officer of Houston- based Stanford Group Co. is accused of misleading investors about the nature and oversight of certificates of deposit issued by his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

Stanford, who maintains his innocence, has been in custody since June 2009, when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston. The court has twice postponed previously scheduled trial dates.

Aiding Defense

Ali Fazel, one of his defense attorneys, today declined to comment on the hearing and trial dates, citing an earlier order from Hittner barring attorneys from discussing the case publicly.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the trial date. She has previously declined to comment because of the gag order.

If he’s found unable to help his attorneys prepare his defense, Stanford could return to Butner for further treatment, said Eric Sussman, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Chicago, in an interview earlier this month.

If Hittner finds Stanford can’t sufficiently recover his faculties, the judge would be required to decide whether the financier must be committed to a long-term care facility, said Sussman, now a partner in the Chicago office of New York-based Kaye Scholer LLP.

For Stanford to be permanently institutionalized, “he’d have to be deemed a danger to himself or others,” said Sussman, who isn’t involved in the case. “To the extent the judge finds he can’t be restored to competency, they may have to drop the charges,” he said.

Doctors

Houston attorney Wendell Odom, who convinced a jury that Andrea Yates was insane when she drowned her children, said if the government’s doctors have found Stanford fit for trial, it will be difficult for the defense to prove otherwise. Stanford will have an even tougher time proving he’s so permanently incapacitated that he can never be tried, Odom said.

“Mental competency is an incredibly low standard, not the same as insanity,” said Odom, a former federal prosecutor. “It basically means you are cognizant of what’s going on and you can talk to your attorney.”

The case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09cr342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

Allen Stanford — Incompetent to Stand Trial, Competent to Sue US Government

Source: Walter Pavlo (forbes)

Allen Stanford was recently transferred (en route) to Butner federal prison after a judge ruled that he was not competent to stand trail. This ruling was made after evidence was put forward that Stanford was deeply depressed, was addicted to anti-depressants and had suffered trauma from a beating by another inmate in prison. Clearly, life is not good for Allen Stanford these days.

Now comes news that Stanford is suing the U.S. government for $7.2 billion accusing federal prosecutors and regulators of depriving him of his constitutional rights. That’s an aggressive action for a guy who was ruled not competent to stand trial. The earlier ruling by the judge indicated that Stanford was not able to help in mounting a defense since but it seems that he is able to mount an OFFENSE. Stanford’s defense is being paid for with taxpayer dollars since being declared indigent by the same judge that deemed him incompetent to stand trial. So Stanford is now suing the same entity (the U.S. government) that is footing the bill for his defense. Confused? I am.

I guess Stanford is not going anywhere quickly but while this delay goes on there are many victims, or investors if Stanford is found innocent, waiting. All of Stanford’s assets have been frozen but the trial would provide a way to distribute those funds. With Madoff’s scheme, an early guilty verdict provided a way for the government to move in, recover and begin distributing stolen assets. With Stanford, we’re still awaiting a plea or a trial to figure out what went on.

There is no clear time frame for when Stanford will be competent to stand trial….but my guess is that this is going to take a while.

Stanford Ruled Incompetent to Stand Trial

Source: Dealbook nytimes

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford was incompetent to stand trial at this time on charges that he ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Judge David Hittner in Federal District Court in Houston ordered Mr. Stanford to be treated for drug addiction at a federal prison hospital. The judge denied a defense request to place Mr. Stanford in a private hospital for treatment, saying he is considered a flight risk.

“The court finds Stanford is incompetent to stand trial at this time based on his apparent impaired ability to rationally assist his attorneys in preparing his defense,” Judge Hittner ruled.

But in ruling against the motion to place Mr. Stanford in a private hospital, the judge noted that the Texas financier had previously been denied requests to be released on bail ahead of his trial.

“It is not lost on the court that Stanford’s motion to be released to a local mental facility for treatment may be yet another attempt by Stanford to be released on bond,” Judge Hittner wrote. “The court’s finding that Stanford is incompetent, however, does not alter the court’s finding that Stanford is a flight risk and that no combination of conditions of pretrial release can reasonably assure his appearance at trial.”

Mr. Stanford was arrested in 2009 on charges including securities fraud and money-laundering. He is accused of selling billions of dollars in fraudulent certificates of deposit through the Antigua operations of the Stanford Financial Group.

That same year, while in jail, Mr. Stanford suffered a head injury after being attacked by another inmate. Since then, Mr. Stanford has been taking anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants. Defense lawyers have argued that Mr. Stanford is mentally unfit to stand trial, although doctors disagree whether his mental state is a result of possible brain damage from the head injury or over-medication from the drugs.

Judge Hittner also ordered that Mr. Stanford’s head injury be evaluated for possible further treatment.

In an interesting twist, the judge suggested that one prison hospital that might be suitable for Mr. Stanford was the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C. Among the inmates at the Butner federal prison is the convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff, who ran a far-larger Ponzi scheme than the one Mr. Stanford is accused of operating.

Ruling on Stanford's Competency