By Laurel Brubaker Calkins
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- R. Allen Stanford, whose lawyers failed to convince a judge that he’s mentally unfit to stand trial, was ordered to face a jury next month on charges he swindled investors of more than $7 billion. The trial is to begin with jury selection on Jan. 23.
Stanford’s defense team argued unsuccessfully that his mental capacity was diminished by head injuries he suffered in a 2009 jailhouse assault and the effects of powerful anxiety medications prescribed in prison after the beating.
“I have found by a preponderance of the evidence that Stanford is competent to stand trial,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston said yesterday in finding Stanford able to assist in his defense.
Hittner’s ruling followed 2 1/2 days of debate over the extent of brain damage Stanford, 61, suffered from the assault and the extent to which he might be faking memory loss.
“He wants to con his way out of this case the same way he conned investors for more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Costa told Hittner yesterday. “Don’t let him do it.”
Robert E. Cochrane, the psychologist who was Stanford’s lead evaluator at the federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina, testified that the former financier failed every test designed to expose fakers.
Stanford’s claim of complete retrograde amnesia, the loss of the memory of what happened before the event responsible, is “remarkable” because it is so rare, Cochrane said.
First Amnesia Report
Stanford first reported having lost his memory after he arrived at Butner in February, more than a year after the assault, the government said.
“Every doctor on the stand agreed that Mr. Stanford is not suffering from the complete retrograde amnesia he repeatedly claimed he had,” Costa said. Once it is accepted that Stanford is exaggerating his memory loss, “it pulls the rug out from under all the other psychological problems he’s reporting,” the prosecutor said.
Ali Fazel, Stanford’s lead lawyer, argued that all the examining doctors agreed “He’s not right. There’s something wrong with him.”
Fazel said Stanford’s brain trauma and psychological impairments leave him incapable of assisting his lawyers or testifying in his own defense.
“Mr. Stanford isn’t running away from anything,” Fazel said. “He wants to fight.” Fazel said.
Desire to Help
Stanford was assaulted and over-medicated while in government custody and wanted the “opportunity to get better and help his counsel,” Fazel argued.
The defense put on testimony from three psychiatrists or neuropsychologists who all said the former billionaire is incompetent.
“He says it’s like there’s a blackboard with all his life written on it, but there are clouds that obscure it,” Victor Scarano, a forensic psychiatrist who examined Stanford for the defense, testified Dec. 21. “Every once in a while, a cloud opens up and he can connect with the memory, and then the clouds comes back.”
Scarano testified Stanford can’t recall some of his children, romantic encounters or business details. He retains “partial pieces” of memory, Scarano said.
Ralph Lilly, a neurologist for Stanford’s defense, testified Dec. 21 that the ex-financier’s brain damage and health problems, including depression, heart and liver disease, have put him “at risk for suicide.”
All-Night Observation
Based on news media reports of that testimony, Stanford was placed under psychiatric watch last night at the federal lockup in Houston. He arrived in court this morning complaining heatedly to his attorneys of having been kept awake and under observation in the jail’s “psyche hole” all night.
A prison official told Hittner an overnight mental evaluation was conducted out of “an abundance of caution,” given Stanford’s high profile and his own doctor’s testimony. She said Stanford will be re-evaluated tonight to determine if he can be returned to the general prison population.
Stanford has been held 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.
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.
Houston Jail
Stanford was sent back to a Houston lockup in November after Butner medical officials certified him competent to stand trial.
Prosecutors say Stanford skimmed more than $1 billion of investor funds to acquire a 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. He has denied wrongdoing.
The case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09-cr-342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).
Showing posts with label memory loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memory loss. Show all posts
Friday, 23 December 2011
Friday, 16 December 2011
Allen Stanford Appears to Be 'Faking' Amnesia: Prosecutors
Published: Thursday, 15 Dec 2011
By: Scott Cohn
Senior Correspondent, CNBC
Federal prosecutors say accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford appears to be "faking" memory loss in order to avoid his criminal trial scheduled for next month.
The accusation comes in a court filing ahead of a hearing next week to determine if Stanford is competent to stand trial.
"Convincing, reliable evidence demonstrates that Stanford is faking memory loss," prosecutors say in the 20-page filing.
Stanford's attorneys say he has lost all memory of events preceding his assault in a federal detention facility in September, 2009. Following the assault, while still in federal custody, Stanford became addicted to prescription drugs.
Stanford was indicted in June of that year for allegedly running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. In January of this year, a judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo drug treatment and evaluation at the Bureau of Prisons medical center in Butner, NC.
That treatment ended last month, and doctors at the medical center declared Stanford competent. But doctors hired by the defense have claimed — and apparently continue to claim — that Stanford has "no independent recollection of personal life events or business dealings that predated the head trauma he sustained in the September 2009," according to the filing.
Stanford even indicated to prison doctors "feeling bad after being informed by his family that he was known as a 'womanizer'," according to the filing.
Stanford, 61, has been separated from his wife for years, and has fathered multiple children with mistresses he referred to as his "outside wives."
Prosecutors, citing doctors at the Butner medical center, say Stanford's claims of memory loss are not credible, since he had no trouble with memory immediately following the assault and only claimed amnesia much later.
As late as last December, according to the prison doctors, Stanford was able to recall specific experiences, including prior interactions with then-Congressman, now House Speaker John Boehner.
The filing says prison doctors testing Stanford's memory found he "either was not trying or was faking."
Defense attorneys have not yet responded to the prosecution's filing. It will be up to U.S. District Judge David Hittner to decide if Stanford is competent for trial. Hittner has scheduled a competency hearing for Tuesday in Houston.
Stanford faces 14 criminal counts in the alleged fraud. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing
By: Scott Cohn
Senior Correspondent, CNBC
Federal prosecutors say accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford appears to be "faking" memory loss in order to avoid his criminal trial scheduled for next month.
The accusation comes in a court filing ahead of a hearing next week to determine if Stanford is competent to stand trial.
"Convincing, reliable evidence demonstrates that Stanford is faking memory loss," prosecutors say in the 20-page filing.
Stanford's attorneys say he has lost all memory of events preceding his assault in a federal detention facility in September, 2009. Following the assault, while still in federal custody, Stanford became addicted to prescription drugs.
Stanford was indicted in June of that year for allegedly running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. In January of this year, a judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo drug treatment and evaluation at the Bureau of Prisons medical center in Butner, NC.
That treatment ended last month, and doctors at the medical center declared Stanford competent. But doctors hired by the defense have claimed — and apparently continue to claim — that Stanford has "no independent recollection of personal life events or business dealings that predated the head trauma he sustained in the September 2009," according to the filing.
Stanford even indicated to prison doctors "feeling bad after being informed by his family that he was known as a 'womanizer'," according to the filing.
Stanford, 61, has been separated from his wife for years, and has fathered multiple children with mistresses he referred to as his "outside wives."
Prosecutors, citing doctors at the Butner medical center, say Stanford's claims of memory loss are not credible, since he had no trouble with memory immediately following the assault and only claimed amnesia much later.
As late as last December, according to the prison doctors, Stanford was able to recall specific experiences, including prior interactions with then-Congressman, now House Speaker John Boehner.
The filing says prison doctors testing Stanford's memory found he "either was not trying or was faking."
Defense attorneys have not yet responded to the prosecution's filing. It will be up to U.S. District Judge David Hittner to decide if Stanford is competent for trial. Hittner has scheduled a competency hearing for Tuesday in Houston.
Stanford faces 14 criminal counts in the alleged fraud. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Allen Stanford’s Amnesia: Haven’t We Seen This Soap Opera Before?
By Shira Ovide
We read with interest our colleague Michael Rothfeld’s story about the amnesia suffered by convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. He now claims he can’t remember anything that happened prior to his 2009 arrest.
It’s been nagging us. We couldn’t quite remember: Where had we seen this before? (Pause for the joke to set in. Theeere you go.)
Yes, the ol’ “I cannot recall, Senator” line has been held out by troubled defendants before, and not just in the plot lines of daytime soap operas.
In 1990, former Guinness chairman and CEO Ernest Saunders was convicted with three others for a scheme to prop up the company’s stock price during a 1986 takeover battle for liquor company Distillers Co. –maker of Tanqueray gins and Johnnie Walker Scotch.
But shortly after his five-year conviction was set, the 55-year-old Saunders said he was in the early stages of dementia. Saunders was freed on parole after serving just 10 months.
After he was released, however, Saunders recovered enough to return to the business world. He said his memory problems and other symptoms were caused by anti-depressants he took in jail.
The British press referred to the Saunders affair as the “alcoholic Dallas.” Given Allen Stanford’s penchant for cricket, maybe we’ll call his sudden memory deficiency the “forgetful wicket.”
We read with interest our colleague Michael Rothfeld’s story about the amnesia suffered by convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. He now claims he can’t remember anything that happened prior to his 2009 arrest.
It’s been nagging us. We couldn’t quite remember: Where had we seen this before? (Pause for the joke to set in. Theeere you go.)
Yes, the ol’ “I cannot recall, Senator” line has been held out by troubled defendants before, and not just in the plot lines of daytime soap operas.
In 1990, former Guinness chairman and CEO Ernest Saunders was convicted with three others for a scheme to prop up the company’s stock price during a 1986 takeover battle for liquor company Distillers Co. –maker of Tanqueray gins and Johnnie Walker Scotch.
But shortly after his five-year conviction was set, the 55-year-old Saunders said he was in the early stages of dementia. Saunders was freed on parole after serving just 10 months.
After he was released, however, Saunders recovered enough to return to the business world. He said his memory problems and other symptoms were caused by anti-depressants he took in jail.
The British press referred to the Saunders affair as the “alcoholic Dallas.” Given Allen Stanford’s penchant for cricket, maybe we’ll call his sudden memory deficiency the “forgetful wicket.”
Friday, 16 September 2011
Stanford Says He Has Lost His Memory
By MICHAEL ROTHFELD
R. Allen Stanford, who has gone through a carousel of defense lawyers, an addiction to medication and a jailhouse beating, is now complaining of another malady, a person familiar with the matter says: amnesia.
The former Texas financier says he cannot remember events prior to his arrest in June 2009, the person said.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Texas ordered in January that Mr. Stanford be weaned off anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressants at the recommendation of psychiatrists. The judge declared Mr. Stanford unable then to help defend himself against charges of masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
Doctors are expected soon to report back on Mr. Stanford's condition. The judge will decide if the trial can go forward in January. Mr. Stanford's lawyer declined to comment.
Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist in New York not involved in the case, said medication and withdrawal are unlikely to cause memory loss. "If it's being cut back at a reasonable pace, that shouldn't stop them from being competent," he said.
Dr. Lubit and Colin Koransky, a forensic psychiatrist in California, both said a head injury—Mr. Stanford suffered one in the beating—could cause amnesia for recent events but is unlikely to affect older memories.
R. Allen Stanford, who has gone through a carousel of defense lawyers, an addiction to medication and a jailhouse beating, is now complaining of another malady, a person familiar with the matter says: amnesia.
The former Texas financier says he cannot remember events prior to his arrest in June 2009, the person said.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Texas ordered in January that Mr. Stanford be weaned off anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressants at the recommendation of psychiatrists. The judge declared Mr. Stanford unable then to help defend himself against charges of masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
Doctors are expected soon to report back on Mr. Stanford's condition. The judge will decide if the trial can go forward in January. Mr. Stanford's lawyer declined to comment.
Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist in New York not involved in the case, said medication and withdrawal are unlikely to cause memory loss. "If it's being cut back at a reasonable pace, that shouldn't stop them from being competent," he said.
Dr. Lubit and Colin Koransky, a forensic psychiatrist in California, both said a head injury—Mr. Stanford suffered one in the beating—could cause amnesia for recent events but is unlikely to affect older memories.