Former Stanford CFO says some assets were profitable

R. Allen Stanford’s businesses collapsed in part because the stock market plunged and a court-appointed receiver destroyed much of the companies’ value after they were seized by the government, James M. Davis, Stanford Financial Group Co.’s former finance chief, told jurors on Wednesday. Testifying for the government under a plea deal in week three of Stanford’s federal court trial in Houston, Davis was shown a letter he wrote to a lawyer shortly after regulators seized Stanford’s companies in February 2009, Bloomberg reports. “The underlying global business growth model remained strong,” Davis wrote, adding that some of Stanford’s businesses were moving toward profitability. “Isn’t that 180 degrees opposite from what you’ve been telling this jury?” Robert Scardino, a lawyer for Stanford, asked Davis. “You said these companies had no value.” Davis responded, “A number of the companies Stanford owned were growing; they were worth something.” The 2009 letter “could be true under certain circumstances,” Davis said. The former finance chief told jurors he changed his mind a month after writing that letter, when he met with his current attorney, who persuaded him to seek a plea deal. “But at the time I was still lying,” he said of the letter. “I was still in the middle of it.” Stanford is accused of perpetuating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. He denies all charges. You can try to sort out fact from fiction by reading the full story here.