Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford, currently jailed on charges accusing him of bilking investors out of more than $7 billion, has been taken to a hospital, his lawyer says. Stanford was set to appear in a Houston federal courtroom for a hearing on whether he can get a new attorney. But his current lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, says that at about 5:30 a.m. today, Stanford was taken from the privately run prison where he is being held in the Houston area to a hospital in nearby Conroe with a high pulse rate. DeGuerin says he did not have any other information about Stanford’s condition. A spokeswoman for Conroe Regional Medical Center declined to release any information to the Associated Press.
Stanford’s former finance chief, James. M. Davis, appeared in court to this morning and plead guilty for his role in the investor fraud, according to Reuters. Davis’ attorney David Finn has said Davis cooperated with prosecutors and the guilty plea is part of a deal with the Justice Department. Davis, along with Stanford and others, are accused of advising clients to invest in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in the Caribbean island of Antigua. Prosecutors say they misused the money.
