Financier in $7bn Ponzi case ‘faking amnesia’

A FORENSIC psychologist yesterday testified that jailed Texas financier R Allen Stanford is mentally stable and competent to be tried next month on charges he deceived investors out of $7 billion (€5.3bn) in a massive Ponzi scheme.

Stanford was declared incompetent in January due to an addiction to an anti-anxiety drug he developed while jailed in Houston. He has spent more than eight months being treated at a federal prison hospital.

Robert Cochrane, who helped treat Stanford at the hospital, said the financier was off the drug, could think clearly and could assist his solicitors in his defence.