St. John’s, Antigua: Allen Stanford expects to appeal his fraud conviction, his lead attorney has said, moments after a jury found the former financier guilty of masterminding a US $7 billion Ponzi scheme through his Stanford International Bank based here, the Antigua Observer reported.
Yesterday, a 12-member jury found the 61-year-old Texan guilty on 13 of his 14-count criminal indictment, the most serious of which could see him sentenced to 20 years in prison.
He was cleared of one count of wire fraud, but was found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, launder money and of obstructing an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Stanford, who did not take the stand during the six-week trial, was silent as the verdict was read yesterday.
The Observer said that less than 24 hours earlier, US District Judge David Hittner ordered the jury to continue deliberations after it said a verdict could not be reached.
As he was led out of the courtroom, Stanford touched his fist to his heart and looked at the bench where his mother and two daughters sat, Reuters news agency reported.
His trial has been a controversy since his 2009 indictment by the SEC that led to the collapse of the Stanford empire and a run on his Bank of Antigua.
The Observer stated that while at a federal detention facility he received a head injury during a prison brawl and later became addicted to anti-anxiety medication. The former financier then claimed memory loss, which his attorneys said made him incompetent to stand trial.
Several months later, Judge Hittner ruled he was capable of assisting in his own defence, leading to the January 23, 2012, start of his trial.
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