Allen Stanford loses use of Lloyds policy to pay lawyers

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Accused swindler Allen  Stanford may not use $100 million in a Lloyd’s of London  insurance policy to pay the lawyers defending him on charges of  running a $7 billion fraud, a U.S. judge in Texas ruled today.
Stanford’s criminal trial is scheduled for January on  charges that he and other top executives of Houston-based  Stanford Financial Group swindled investors who bought  certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank  in Antigua.
A ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas said that  lawyers for Lloyds had proven at a trial in August that it was  likely that Stanford had committed money laundering. Stanford  and his co-defendants deny any wrongdoing.
The court “concludes as to each plaintiff that the policy’s  money laundering exclusion applies to justify underwriters’  denial of insurance coverage at this time,” Atlas’s written  ruling in Houston federal court said.
She said that the findings “are neither final findings of  fact nor conclusions of law” for use in the criminal case or  the civil case by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission  against Stanford and three other executives.