NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Accused swindler Allen Stanford may not use $100 million in a Lloyd’s of London insurance policy to pay the lawyers defending him on charges of running a $7 billion fraud, a U.S. judge in Texas ruled today.
Stanford’s criminal trial is scheduled for January on charges that he and other top executives of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group swindled investors who bought certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank in Antigua.
A ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas said that lawyers for Lloyds had proven at a trial in August that it was likely that Stanford had committed money laundering. Stanford and his co-defendants deny any wrongdoing.
The court “concludes as to each plaintiff that the policy’s money laundering exclusion applies to justify underwriters’ denial of insurance coverage at this time,” Atlas’s written ruling in Houston federal court said.
She said that the findings “are neither final findings of fact nor conclusions of law” for use in the criminal case or the civil case by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Stanford and three other executives.
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