White Collar Crime News

Does Allen Stanford have enough money to bankroll a defense? February 19, 2009

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard of Allen Stanford by now.  He is accused, but not charged criminally yet, with billions of dollars in fraud.  While still not at the level of Madoff, his case might be more complex due the reach of his bank.  As big as the Madoff story is, it is more of a New York story although his investors were spread out all over the place.  Stanford’s case reaches numerous countries and as a result, it could much more complex that Madoff’s case.

Just as an example of what is going on now, Mexico’s banking regulator is investigating a local Stanford bank for possible violation of banking laws.  While this may not yet involve Stanford directly, it probably will soon.  This is a world wide situation that is going to get worse. 

Stanford is going to need huge team of attorneys to deal with all of this and his company will need their own attorneys.  These attorneys are going to have to dedicate just about all of their time to this case.  Of course, that is incredibly expensive especially if you have to get teams of lawyers in different countries to deal with the issues that will come up in each country.  It is going to be incredibly tough to bankroll all of this and then eventually bankroll a defense in the criminal case. 

If I am running the defense team, I am making sure the defense in the civil case is handled so that the defense for the criminal charges that will be filed is started.  I would also make sure that resources are not wasted but used carefully because money will be running out eventually.  Everything has to be geared towards the criminal defense but you don’t just want to roll over on the civil case either. 

It should be interesting to see just when he will be arrested.  The public may force the Government to arrest him earlier than they would like to.  I say that because Stanford was found in Virginia a few hours ago if you didn’t see that breaking news yet.  He was not in Antigua or some other country as some have speculated.

Story about the Mexico investigation is here.