Allen Stanford Case Goes to Jury

The fate of R. Allen Stanford, the mustachioed billionaire arrested in 2009 for his alleged role in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is now in the hands of a 12-person jury after the defense and prosecution in his fraud trial finished their closing statements, according to the New York Times. Should he be found guilty of the 14 criminal charges he is accused of, including mail and wire fraud, he could face a sentence of more than 20 years.

Stanford’s arrest and charge came around the same time that most of the country’s attention was focused on the much larger $60 billion Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff, now serving out a 150-year prison sentence, though his story is no less fascinating. A flamboyant figure compared to the more staid Madoff, Stanford was not shy about displaying his wealth through purchases such as financing a $20 million cricket match in the U.S. Virgin Islands and then going to see said match by taking a gold plated helicopter.

The prosecution brought forth the argument that Stanford, through his company, had spent years telling investors that certificates of deposit from his Antigua-based bank was a safe investment when, in truth, they were used to fund a series of failed businesses that went nowhere, said the Times, as well as yachts, private jets and other luxuries for Stanford’s personal life, eventually leading the company to owe $7 billion it didn’t have. While a simple audit would have revealed this fact, said prosecutors, the company was able to get a clean bill of financial health through massive bribes to regulators and auditors.

The defense didn’t deny that a fraud had taken place but, instead, placed the blame with James Davis, the company’s chief financial officer. They also claimed that Stanford would have been able to pay back the investors had the federal government not seized his funds upon his arrest, and further said that the C.D.s told to them did, indeed, make money.