Family members of accused Ponzi scheme mastermind R. Allen Stanford gathered at Houston’s federal courthouse today, expressing belief in his innocence as a jury deliberated fraud allegations presented in a six-week trial, the Houston Chronicle reported.
“We support him 100 percent,” said Stanford’s niece, Lauren Kuehn, 24, as she waited in a hallway outside U.S. District Judge David Hittner’s court. “In fact, 150 percent.”
Darlene Teel, 46, Stanford’s half sister, said she is encouraged by the length of the jury’s deliberations, which are in their fourth day. “He’s innocent,” she told the newspaper.
Also awaiting the verdict were Stanford’s farther, James Stanford, 84, and stepmother Billie Stanford, 76.
“I’m hoping for the best,” said James Stanford, a former mayor of Allen Stanford’s native Mexia.
James Stanford served on the board of Stanford Financial Group, the privately held, Houston-based umbrella company over Stanford’s international network of financial services and other businesses.
But James Stanford told the Houston Chronicle soon after the U.S. government shut down his son’s operations in 2009 that he had little actual involvement in the businesses. He has not been linked to any fraud allegations, the newspaper said.
The Houston Chronicle said that at the jury’s request on Monday morning, Hittner read back part of the testimony of a government witness who said Antiguan law sets a US$50 maximum value on gifts regulators may receive from banks.
It was the jury’s second question to the court. Last week jurors requested a definition of the word “scheme” as it applies to the counts in the indictment alleging mail and wire fraud.
