Allen Stanford to Undergo Examination by Psychiatrist

US Diplomats Avoided Allen Stanford Long Before His Arrest
Long before the feds got him, corrupt Texas financier Allen Stanford was persona non grata in the circles of U.S. Diplomats, according to cables released by Wikileaks, the Guardian reported. Diplomats were so concerned about the rumors of "Bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation" surrounding Stanford that they avoided contac with him or being photographed with him more than two years before his arrest by the FBI for allegedly bilking investors of $7 billion in a huge Ponzi Scheme...

U.S. diplomats were leery of Allen Stanford: cable
By Pascal Fletcher Miami | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:45am EST Miami (Reuters) - U.S. Diplomats in the Caribbean were already wary of Texas financier Allen Stanford, who faces trial for allegedly leading a $7 billion Ponzi Scheme, years before he was detained in 2009 on massive Fraud charges, a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks shows. The May 2006 confidential report from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados describes Stanford as a "Controversial Texan Billionaire" and major investor in the ...

U.S. diplomats were leery of Allen Stanford: cable
Miami (Reuters) - U.S. Diplomats in the Caribbean were already wary of Texas financier Allen Stanford, who faces trial for allegedly leading a $7 billion Ponzi Scheme, years before he was detained in 2009 on massive Fraud charges, a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks shows. The May 2006 confidential report from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados describes Stanford as a "Controversial Texan Billionaire" and major investor in the Caribbean and adds: "His companies are rumored to engage ...

U.S. diplomats were leery of Allen Stanford: cable
MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Diplomats in the Caribbean were already wary of Texas financier Allen Stanford, who faces trial for allegedly leading a $7 billion Ponzi Scheme, years before he was detained in 2009 on massive Fraud charges, a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks shows. The May 2006 confidential report from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados describes Stanford as a "Controversial Texan Billionaire" and major investor in the Caribbean and adds: "His companies are rumored to engage i...

U.S. diplomats were leery of Allen Stanford: cable
By Pascal Fletcher MIAMI | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:45am EST MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. diplomats in the Caribbean were already wary of Texas financier Allen Stanford, who faces trial for allegedly leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, years before he was detained in 2009 on massive fraud charges, a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks shows. The May 2006 confidential report from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados describes Stanford as a "controversial Texan billionaire" and major investor in the ...

Art dealer acquitted of knowingly selling fakes
(12-21) 15:44 PST San Francisco -- A longtime art dealer at San Francisco's Union Square was acquitted Tuesday of knowingly selling fake prints of paintings by Joan Miró. Pasquale Iannetti, who ran a Sutter Street gallery bearing his name for 37 years, said he had been unaware he was selling Counterfeit prints. A Federal Court jury in San Francisco found him Not Guilty of 15 felony counts of mail and Wire Fraud after 2 1/2 days of deliberations. Iannetti, 70, was indicted by a federal grand ju...

WikiLeaks: US diplomats warned about R. Allen Stanford
KINGSTON, Jamaica — A newly revealed U.S. cable portrays American Diplomats in the Caribbean as being so concerned about Bribery and money-laundering rumors related to Texas financier R. Allen Stanford that they warned Embassy officers to steer clear of him as early as 2006. The behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessment from May 2006 was marked "confidential" and written three years before U.S. Regulators announced they were investigating Stanford and his Caribbean bank for allegedly bilkin...

King & Spalding drawn into ex-Glaxo lawyer's defense
By Carlyn Kolker NEW YORK | Tue Dec 21, 2010 4:47pm EST NEW YORK Dec 21 (Reuters Legal) - A former GlaxoSmithKline Plc lawyer indicted last month for obstructing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into the company's marketing of antidepressant Wellbutrin was advised by major Law Firm King & Spalding, according to a document filed in court by her defense team. When the lawyer, Lauren Stevens, was charged by Federal Prosecutors in Greenbelt, Maryland, in early November, her l...

Prosecutors doubt Stanford's incompetency claims
HOUSTON (AP) - Prosecutors are doubting claims by defense attorneys that jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, accused of bilking investors out of $7 billion in a massive Ponzi Scheme, is incompetent to stand trial and are asking a Federal Judge for a second opinion. In a court motion filed Monday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge David Hittner to order that Stanford undergo a second competency exam. In court documents filed earlier this month, Stanford's attorneys claimed their clien...

Art dealer acquitted of knowingly selling fakes
(12-21) 15:44 PST San Francisco -- A longtime art dealer at San Francisco's Union Square was acquitted Tuesday of knowingly selling fake prints of paintings by Joan Miró. Pasquale Iannetti, who ran a Sutter Street gallery bearing his name for 37 years, said he had been unaware he was selling Counterfeit prints. A Federal Court jury in San Francisco found him Not Guilty of 15 felony counts of mail and Wire Fraud after 2 1/2 days of deliberations. Iannetti, 70, was indicted by a federal grand ju...

Eversole indicted
This has been so long in coming I was beginning to wonder if it would ever arrive. Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole pleaded Not Guilty to federal Bribery and Income Tax charges today. Eversole is charged with accepting a bribe from developer and former Harris County facilities director Mike Surface. Details of the alleged bribe were not immediately available. [...] The indictments were handed down Monday, but only were unsealed in Johnson’s courtroom today. “This is the...

WikiLeaks: Embassy Believed Financier Was Rotten
Billionaire R. Allen Stanford is escorted into the federal Courthouse in Houston June 25, 2009. (Credit: AP Photo) U.S. Diplomats took rumors of accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford so seriously four years ago that they made sure to avoid being photographed with him. The Embassy in Barbados referenced rumors that Stanford was involved in "Bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation" in a 2006 cable, nearly three years before he was accused of bilking investors out of $7 billion in...

Morning Roundup: Follow That Hurd
Mark Hurd, who left his job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard this summer amid allegations of sexual harrassment earlier this year, is now also under investigation for Insider Trading. It has not been a good year for Mark Hurd. [WSJ] Could a Wikileaks data dump about a major bank be a worse embarrassment for Regulators than for the bank? Our Regulators do have a long and storied history of being embarrassed ... [NYT] Canadian banks Toronto-Dominion looks set to buy Chrysler Financial from private equ...

Feds: $99M recovered includes restitution by Ponzi schemers
The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago said today that it collected $99 million in fiscal 2010 by tracking down money owed by Ponzi schemers, crooked doctors and others in connection with criminal and civil cases. The money, owed to either Victims or the government, was collected from October 2009 to September 2010 and amounted to more than triple the office's $32 million annual Budget, Federal Prosecutors said. The office has as long as two decades after a criminal defendant is released from ...

Judge revokes $5M bond for ex-Madoff worker Annette Bongiorno
One of Bernard Madoff's trusted former workers got an early lump of coal for Christmas this morning from a judge who revoked her bail and ordered her to surrender to US Marshals by 3 p.m. Annette Bongiorno -- who allegedly pocketed $14.5 million through her boss's Ponzi Scheme -- has an "abundance of unrestricted assets" that could help her flee Conspiracy charges that could send her to Prison for life, Manhattan Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain said. The ruling came after Defense Lawyers yest...

WikiLeaks reveals US worries over Allen Stanford
US Diplomats were worried about Allen Stanford's business dealings three years before his financial empire collapsed, according to Wikileaks. The Guardian, which has been publishing details of the cables, said the US Embassy in Barbados raised the issue in a cable dated May 3, 2006 after the ambassador attended a breakfast meeting with Stanford and Barbados' Prime Minister. The disclosure potentially raises fresh questions about the wisdom of the England and Wales Cricket Board to sign a...

Leaked cables reveal Allen Stanford concerns
US Diplomats expressed concern about the business dealings of Allen Stanford three years before the collapse of his financial empire amid allegations of Fraud, according the latest leaked Embassy cables posted on the Wikileaks website. The Guardian, which has been publishing details of the cables, said the US Embassy in Barbados raised the issue in a cable dated May 3 2006 after the ambassador attended a breakfast meeting with Stanford and Barbados' Prime Minister. The disclosure potentially r...

Judge to decide Jackson syringe testing issues
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge overseeing the criminal case of a doctor charged in Michael Jackson’s death has scheduled a hearing to determine if medical items found in the singer’s bedroom should undergo another round of testing. Defense attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray have been asking for months that fluids in two syringes and an IV bag found in Jackson’s rented mansion be tested to determine how much of the anesthetic Propofol they contained. Murray’s defense attorn...

U.S. attorney general under fire for FBI sting comments
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Somali-born teen charged in an alleged plot to bomb a Christmas Tree-lighting ceremony are seeking a court order to restrict U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder from commenting on the case. The motion filed in Federal Court on Monday on behalf of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, accuses Holder of prejudicing the pool of potential jurors with remarks to reporters in which he strongly denied suggestions that the suspect was a Victim of government entrapment. Defe...

Defense in bomb case wants to silence attorney general
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Somali-born man charged in a plot to bomb a Christmas Tree-lighting ceremony in Portland are trying to restrict U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder from commenting on the case. The motion filed in Federal Court on Monday on behalf of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, accuses Holder of prejudicing the pool of potential jurors with remarks to reporters in which he strongly denied suggestions that the suspect was a Victim of government entrapment. Defense Lawyers ...

McHenry Co. prosecutors name Bianchi's alleged associates
Special prosecutors have named but not charged four people as alleged conspirators with McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi. Bianchi was charged in September with Conspiracy, official misconduct and unlawful communication with a witness. He is accused of using county workers and equipment for campaign activities. Bianchi's attorney, Terry Ekl, said the naming of the four was an example of the special prosecutors being "out of control." "In the entire Grand Jury, there is not one scin...

Defense in bomb case wants to silence attorney general
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Somali-born man charged in a plot to bomb a Christmas Tree-lighting ceremony in Portland are trying to restrict U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder from commenting on the case. The motion filed in Federal Court on Monday on behalf of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, accuses Holder of prejudicing the pool of potential jurors with remarks to reporters in which he strongly denied suggestions that the suspect was a Victim of government entrapment. Defense Lawyers a...

Defense in bomb case wants to silence attorney general
By Dan Cook PORTLAND, Oregon | Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:18pm EST PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Somali-born man charged in a plot to bomb a Christmas Tree-lighting ceremony in Portland are trying to restrict U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder from commenting on the case. The motion filed in Federal Court on Monday on behalf of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, accuses Holder of prejudicing the pool of potential jurors with remarks to reporters in which he strongly denied suggestions that the su...

Judge to decide Jackson syringe testing issues
FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, US singer Michael Jackson is shown at a Press Conference in London. A judge overseeing the criminal case of a doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death has scheduled a hearing to determine if medical items found in the singer's bedroom should undergo another round of testing. Defense attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray have been asking for months that fluids in two syringes and an IV bag found in Jackson's rented mansion be tested to determine how much of th...

Madigan: Chicago Man Sentenced for Securities Fraud, Theft
Chicago--(ENEWSPF)--December 21, 2010. Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced yesterday that a former Chicago man was sentenced today to 13 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for his role in operating an investment Fraud scheme that targeted mainly those in the Chicago-area Hispanic community and bilked investors out of more than $10 million. DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Blanche Hall-Fawell sentenced Raul Marrero, 38, to seven years following his Guilty Pleas last month...