Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
HOUSTON, USA (MCT) — Jailed financier Allen Stanford has hit back at prosecutors and federal regulators, asking for $7.2 billion on claims they deprived him of his constitutional rights.
Stanford’s lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Houston, Texas, is for the same amount he is accused of costing certificate of deposit investors when his financial empire collapsed in 2009 under the weight of a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
He claims government agents “undertook illegal tactics” to prosecute him and “engaged in unfair, abusive law enforcement methods and tactics” that left him broke and unable to properly defend himself, according to the lawsuit.
Stanford, 60, is being transferred to a prison hospital for treatment to addiction to a powerful anti-anxiety medication he was prescribed while jailed.
His January trial on a 21-count criminal indictment was postponed until his treatment is complete.
In a second Stanford-related lawsuit, the court-appointed receiver was countersued Wednesday by a group of the indicted financier’s securities brokers, who allege the receiver mismanaged the firm, causing them $100 million in damages.
The securities brokers, who were affiliated with Stanford Group Co., allege receiver Ralph Janvey destroyed the company’s value by barring the brokers from contacting clients, interfering with their abilities to get new jobs and allegedly failing to accept a $500 million offer for the business.
No Stanford financial advisers in Mississippi are listed among the plaintiffs.
Stanford Group Co. was one of the businesses Janvey was appointed by the court to operate when the SEC sued Stanford in the investment fraud scheme.
The receivership has sued 329 former Stanford employees, seeking to recoup $265 million, including $114 million in commissions earned selling allegedly fraudulent CDs issued by the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.
Reuters News quoted Janvey’s outside counsel, attorney Kevin Sadler, as saying the countersuit wasn’t unexpected.
Their claim the securities firm could be sold “is something that defies logic, common sense and the facts under these circumstances,” he said.
