Stanford trial pivots on peanut butter before moving on to ex-employees

The R. Allen Stanford trial involving allegations of fraud totaling $7 billion came down to peanuts for a while Wednesday, The Houston Chronicle reports. Defense lawyer Robert Scardino asked why his client, who is being held without bail, gets only peanut butter sandwiches when the trial breaks for lunch and bailiffs return him to a holding cell. Scardino said his client needs more protein than that to stand up to the rigors of the trial. U.S. District Judge David Hittner said he’d chew on the matter, but his response hadn’t yet jelled by the end of Wednesday’s session. Two former employees of R. Allen Stanford’s financial services operation later told federal jurors they saw problems with it years before investigators began targeting the former billionaire accused of masterminding a $7 billion investment fraud. Michelle Chambliess said Stanford told her he located the Guardian International Bank—which offered customers interest rates on certificates of deposit that were 2% to 4% higher than rates available from U.S. banks—offshore so it could avoid U.S. taxes and requirements involving insurance and minimum cash reserves. Chambliess, who started working for Stanford in 1987, said the operation didn’t raise any red flags until the late 1990s, when an annual report showed that the bank—by then named Stanford International and moved to the neighboring Caribbean island of Antigua—had loaned Stanford $14 million. Read about her full testimony and that of another former employee here.