Allen Stanford Mental Fitness Hearing Before Fraud Trial Set for December
As appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek
November 29, 2011
Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, accused of leading a $7 billion investment fraud, faces a competency hearing later this month to determine if he is fit to stand trial next year. According to BusinessWeek, Stanford has been treated in a prison hospital in North Carolina for anti-anxiety drug dependency. He has also been evaluated after a head injury he sustained during a prison assault.
Said Kaye Scholer White-Collar Litigation Partner Eric Sussman, a former federal prosecutor, “If he’s found unable to help his attorneys prepare his defense, Stanford could return to Butner for further treatment.”
“If [Judge] Hittner finds Stanford can’t sufficiently recover his faculties, the judge would be required to decide whether the financier must be committed to a long-term care facility,” Sussman added.
Sussman concluded that for Stanford to be permanently institutionalized, “he’d have to be deemed a danger to himself or others. To the extent the judge finds he can’t be restored to competency, they may have to drop the charges.”