Dressed in a orange jumpsuit and with his hands and legs shackled, Jewish cricket tycoon Sir Allen Stanford arrived at court today to face allegations he masterminded a £4.2billion fraud.
Laywers for the Texas billionaire, 59, told a judge that he denied running a giant Ponzi scheme.
But Dick DeGuerin, defending, revealed he had turned to alcohol to deal with the stress of the accusations.
‘Allen Stanford began drinking more heavily to self-medicate his depression and anxiety,’ he said, adding the sports promoter was now taking anti-anxiety drug Ativan.
‘The medication has proven beneficial. Since he began taking Ativan to appropriately manage his anxiety, Allen Stanford has not relied on alcohol to self-medicate.’
Stanford and three executives from his now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group face a 21-count charge sheet.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy is expected to decide if he will be allowed out on bail pending his trial.
Stanford was arrested in Virginia on June 18, hours after he was indicted in Houston.
He was returned to Texas on Tuesday and is being held in the Montgomery County Jail in Conroe, located just north of Houston, according to his attorney Dick DeGuerin.
Stanford had tried to turn himself in to federal authorities in the months before his indictment. But authorities couldn’t take him into custody until charges were filed.
Each of the most serious counts Stanford faces carry prison terms of up to 20 years.
Indicted Stanford executives Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilberto Lopez and Mark Kuhrt were also set to enter pleas during Thursday’s hearing before Stacy.
The billionaire and the executives are accused of orchestrating a massive fraud by misusing most of the £4.2billion they advised clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank, based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.
Also indicted but still not in custody is Leroy King, the former chief executive officer of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission.
Stanford, Pendergest-Holt, Lopez, Kuhrt and King are charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and King are also charged with conspiring to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and obstruction of an SEC investigation.
Is Allen Stanford Jewish? Research here.
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The only reason he has been caught and soon to be jailed is becaause he is not a practicing Jew, so the Zionists do not mind him going down!