Cricket mogul Stanford out of prison hospital

11 November,2011 01:30 PM IST |   |  AFP

Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford has moved out of a prison hospital where he was being treated for drug addiction, federal prison records showed Thursday.


Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford has moved out of a prison hospital where he was being treated for drug addiction, federal prison records showed Thursday.

Stanford had been scheduled to stand trial in September for an alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme, but the hearing was postponed to sometime in early 2012 after a judge ruled he was temporarily unfit to stand trial.

Government psychiatrists and Stanford's legal team testified that he was suffering from bouts of delirium linked to his dependency on powerful anti-anxiety medication.

They found the 60-year-old was also depressed due to a brain injury he sustained during a 2009 jailhouse brawl, and recommended he be weaned off the drug.

The flamboyant Texan has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen counts of fraud, money laundering and obstruction. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Stanford is currently being held in a federal prison transfer facility in Oklahoma. A new trial date has not yet been posted in the court's system.

A self-described "maverick," Stanford hit international sports headlines by creating the eponymous Stanford Super Series Twenty20 cricket competition.

The $20 million winner-take-all match appalled many in the cricket world by challenging the sacrosanct traditional cricket establishment.

In Antigua, he was a larger-than-life figure, the island's largest employer and the recipient of a 2006 knighthood. But after the allegations against him surfaced, much of his support dwindled and the England and Wales Cricket Board cut ties with him.

Stanford launched a $7.2 billion countersuit in February against federal agents alleging violations of his civil rights and illegal prosecution.

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