Allen Stanford, the once flamboyant Texas billionaire accused of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors in Antigua, is seeking a delay of his trial for at least two more years. His trial was scheduled to begin on January 24, 2011.
Although Stanford has been in jail since June 2009, his defense attorneys, Ali Fazel and Richard Scardino, appointed by the court last October, have claimed that little progress has been made on actual trial preparation and they need more time to properly analyze more than five million documents and dozens of potential witnesses.
Stanford, 60, charged with 21 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice, long declared his innocence and had said more than a year ago, he was looking forward to the opportunity to clearing his name.
