By: Thom Weidlich
Source: bloomberg.com
Allen Stanford, former Texas billionaire, accused of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme and who sits in a Houston jail, is protesting his living conditions. Dick DeGuerin, Stanford’s lawyer, has said that his cell has been without air conditioning for at least a week and there are no windows for light or ventilation.
For the past week, Stanford, who’s in a cell in Conroe, Texas, with from eight to 10 other men, has endured heat and intermittent lack of power when outside temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) or more, his lawyer, DeGuerin, said yesterday in a motion asking that his client be transferred to a downtown Houston jail.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston on July 15 denied Stanford’s original request to be transferred while he awaits trial on charges of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction. The financier is being held without bail at the privately run Joe Corley Detention Center, about 43 miles north of Houston.
Pablo Paez, a spokesman for Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which runs the facility, said in an e-mail that it has full power and air conditioning.
Stanford Protests Lack of Air Conditioning in Jail
