Give Stanford the legal team he wants

Posted Aug 11th 2009 5:30PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Law, Scandals

Robert Allen Stanford has been charged with running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history and, like any other millionaire, that means he's looking to spend a ton of money on his defense.

Since Stanford's assets have been frozen, he has to get court approval for his expenses, and he's asking for an allowance of $10 million for his legal fees. But the Feds think that amount is excessive and are concerned that that money should go to his victims.

So for now it's in limbo, but Mr. Stanford is already paying the price. The New York Post reports that "Just last week, Stanford's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, sprinted for the exit because he wasn't getting paid. The court, though, is forcing DeGuerin to stay until someone else can be found. That someone might be Robert Luskin, of Patton Boggs, in Washington, D.C., but he, too, will not guarantee legal work unless he gets paid."

Here's the thing: In the grand scheme of the $7 billion fraud Stanford has been charged with operation, $10 million just isn't a lot of money. It's less than 0.2% of the total amount, so there's a real question of whether there's anything material to be gained by depriving him of the legal dream team he's seeking. And with a case as complex as securities fraud, he will need a lot of billable hours to get a fair defense. How much do you think the prosecution has spent preparing its case?

Depriving Stanford of competent counsel -- and undermining his preparation for the case by forcing his lawyers to leave because Stanford has no money -- does a disservice to our justice system and could cast a cloud of doubt over any conviction and could even pave the way for a mistrial or successful appeal.

Please: Let's just give Stanford the money he wants to spend on his lawyers and then send him away for a long time, if indeed he is guilty.

Tags: Lawyers, R. Allen Stanford, R.AllenStanford, Robert Allen Stanford, RobertAllenStanford, Stanford

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-15-2009 @ 8:12PM

JB said...

I think you're missing a couple of important points here. $10 million isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but considering the $7 billion is almost entirely missing, the 10 mil is actually a lot of money that could be paid back to defrauded investors.

You're also misisng the point that DeGuerrin doesn't want to defend Stanford anymore, not because he's not getting paid, but because he thinks Stanford is guilty. If he thought that Stanford were innocent, he would fight and wait for his big pay day after Stanford's liberation. By leaving now, he's basically saying he knows Stanford is guilty and there's no chance he's getting paid now or ever. He's cutting his losses because the judge is not budging on the frozen assets.

It just doesn't make sense to approve $10 million to this guy for a defense. Any competent lawyer could defend Stanford for a lot less --- and that money could be used to pay back investors, instead of lining some rich lawyer's pockets.

8-11-2009 @ 9:53PM

thugnextdoor said...

Sounds good to me.

8-11-2009 @ 10:47PM

DP said...

So the bigger the crime the more the court should spend on a court appointed lawyer? Your logic is crap. He's so obviously guilty that he should be shot in the head and his family charged for the bullet.

8-12-2009 @ 1:45AM

kateinanu said...

The money you are so keen to give to Stanford for his defense came out of the pockets of his victims. 28,000 people who he has robbed of their life savings. They might - just might get 3cents in the dollar back if they are lucky and the receivers don't take it all to cover their costs. That $10Million Stanford wants belongs to the people he stole it from....don't you think they have paid enough towards Stanford's lifestyle. Let him have a court appointed lawyer like any other criminal who's only wealth is from stolen assets.

Many of these depositors are left with nothing to live on and you want us to think about giving some money to Stanford...think again chump, it's not going to happen.

8-12-2009 @ 6:51AM

memofishleder said...

Mr. Bissonnette
Your logic is completly CRAZY
YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND TOTALLY
LET SAY YOU STEAL 100 MILLION AN THEY THROW YOU IN JAIL WITHOUT A CENT AND YOU NEED 500,000 dollars for a legal team to defend you ,the court
will authorize you to take from your stolen money in order to defend yourself
PLEASE GET REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!