Judge denied Stanford’s Lawyers’ motion to withdraw from case

St. John’s, Antigua: US District Judge, David Hittner, has ruled that Allen Stanford’s lawyers will not be allowed to withdraw from the case, according to a Caribarena Antigua report.

Defence lawyers Ali Fazel and Robert Scardino had filed a motion to withdraw from Stanford’s case, which is scheduled to begin on January 23, claiming that due to limited finance, they are unable to properly represent their client and also argued that they had not had enough time to prepare for the Jury trial.

Judge Hittner, who has repeatedly denied motions for a continuance, said the attorneys had been given plenty of time and wrote, “The Court notes that the defence team maintains this position despite the fact that two of its lawyers Scardino and Fazel have been appointed to this case since November 2010."
Hittner also decided not to throw out the case on constitutional grounds, another motion the defence had proposed, according to the Caribarena report.

Stanford, 61, who has been imprisoned as a flight risk since he was indicted in June 2009 on charges of defrauding investors through allegedly bogus certificates of deposit at his Antigua- based Stanford International Bank Ltd., a $7 billion investment fraud, denies all wrongdoing.