Attorneys for indicted billionaire Allen Stanford are taking their case to an appellate court, after a federal judge late on Friday again refused to release Stanford on bail.
On Friday, Judge David Hittner, without explanation, denied a request to reconsider his June 30 decision to keep Stanford behind bars pending his trial. Now, Stanford's attorneys are appealing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for his release.
At the same time, they are asking Hittner to at least order that Stanford be moved from a federal detention center 40 miles north of Houston to a facility in downtown Houston where he and his attorneys can more easily prepare for trial.
Stanford's trial is currently set for August 25, but his lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has suggested the trial will need to be delayed, since it will take up to a year to prepare for it.
The financier and three other executives of Stanford Financial Group were accused in an indictment in June of orchestrating a massive fraud by misusing most of the $7 billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in Antigua.
Stanford and his co-defendants are charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Later in June, they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
