Defence rests at Stanford's trial

Attorneys for Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford rested their case on Monday without having the once high-flying businessman testify at his fraud trial on charges he bilked investors out of more than US$7 billion.

The jailed financier's attorneys told US District Judge David Hittner that Stanford would not take the witness stand in his own defence.

With both defence attorneys and prosecutors having finished presenting their cases, closing arguments were set for today, Wednesday, in the trial, which is in its sixth week.

On Friday, a prosecutor told the court that computer hard drives belonging to the outside auditor of Stanford's Caribbean bank apparently were erased after the auditor's death.

The information about the hard drives, revealed as a prosecutor questioned a defence witness, prompted a failed mistrial request by Stanford attorneys, who said they couldn't verify the claim and that the implication of criminal activity could irreparably harm their case.

"The jury has heard it and there is no way to take it back," said Ali Fazel, one of Stanford's attorneys.

Hittner denied the motion for a mistrial, but instructed jurors that questions from attorneys are not evidence.

Stanford, 61, is accused of orchestrating a 20-year scheme that took billions through the sale of certificates of deposit from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.

They also allege Stanford, whose financial empire was headquartered in Houston, lied to depositors by telling them their funds were being safely invested but instead spent it on his businesses and his lavish lifestyle.

Defence attorneys tried to show the financier was a savvy businessman whose business empire was legitimate.

They have blamed Stanford's ex-chief financial officer, who was the prosecution's star witness, for the alleged fraud. They have told jurors he was trying to consolidate his businesses to pay back investors when authorities seized his companies.

At the start of the trial, Stanford's attorneys had told jurors the financier would testify. But there apparently had been an internal debate between Stanford and his defence team about whether he should take the stand.

A gag order in the case is preventing prosecutors and defence attorneys from discussing the case. But Stanford's mother, Sammie Stanford, said that her son was alone in wanting to testify.

"I think nobody wanted him to (testify) but him," she said. "I think he bowed to the majority."

Sammie Stanford, 82, who was allowed to speak with her son in a back room before the final decision was announced, said her son had been ill and was probably not up to testifying.

The financier had been sneezing and coughing last week during the trial and Hittner had ended testimony early on two days because Stanford wasn't feeling well.

Sammie Stanford said her son also still suffers memory loss and can't sleep due to an addiction he developed in jail to an anti-anxiety drug and injuries from a jail fight. Stanford was declared incompetent last year due to the drug addiction and treated, but in December Hittner declared him fit for trial.

After its final expert witness testified earlier Monday, Hittner gave Stanford's legal team about 15 minutes to make a final decision on whether the financier would testify.

After the short break, defence attorney Robert Scardino asked Hittner if he could have the rest of Monday to make a decision. Hittner said no.

"I need to know right now, is your client taking the stand or not?" Hittner asked.

Scardino was given another short break so he and Stanford's legal team could step into a back room and consult one more time with the financier. Scardino then returned and said the defence was resting its case.

Stanford's attorneys spent about nine days presenting their case. Prosecutors took about three weeks.

The final defence witness was Leonard Lyons, a certified fraud examiner. He called "misleading" claims by prosecutors that Stanford used up to US$2 billion in CD deposits as personal loans and transferred millions in investor funds to a secret Swiss bank account for his own personal use and to bribe Antiguan regulators.

Lyons said prosecutors did not fully trace where all of the bank's funds went to or how they were used because authorities didn't have access to all of the bank's records, many of which were located outside the US.

Stanford is on trial for 14 counts, including mail and wire fraud, and could be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison if convicted. Once considered among the wealthiest people in the United States with an estimated net worth of more than US$2 billion, he has been jailed without bond since being indicted in 2009.

AP