Judge will consider Stanford request for money

HOUSTON - A federal judge in Dallas said he will consider a modest request for money to pay lawyers and accountants to look through R. Allen Stanford's personal assets to find money untainted by an alleged $7 billion fraud.

The Texas financier asked U.S. District Judge David Godbey more than two months ago to order the court-appointed receiver in the Securities and Exchange Commission civil case against him to place $10 million in an escrow account in the name of attorney Dick DeGuerin to cover attorney fees and legal costs.

Godbey said in an order earlier this week that he would "entertain" a modest request to pay lawyers and accountants to help "demonstrate the existence of personal assets unrelated to and untainted by the alleged fraud."

The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil charges in February against Stanford and the top officers of the now-defunct Stanford Financial Group.

Last month, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted Stanford and three executives of the Stanford Financial Group on charges accusing them of orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme by misusing most of the $7 billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Stanford also is seeking to use money from a Stanford Financial insurance policy to pay his legal team.

"We have not received a penny, yet," DeGuerin told the Houston Chronicle Thursday.

Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver in the SEC case, has asked for $20 million for fees related to the case.

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