Cook Islands

Jury deciding if $330 million in accounts of convicted Texas tycoon Stanford can be seized

A prosecutor asked jurors on Wednesday to allow federal authorities to seize $330 million from nearly 30 accounts controlled by convicted Texas tycoon R.

Allen Stanford and others, saying the funds are proceeds from the financier's massive Ponzi scheme and can be traced back to investors who lost billions.Stanford's attorney countered prosecutors didn't prove that all of the money from these accounts — which belonged to Stanford, his companies and one of his girlfriends — can be connected back to investors.The claims by prosecutors and defense attorneys were part of a brief criminal forfeiture proceeding that followed Stanford's conviction by this same jury on Tuesday on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts for orchestrating a scheme that took more than $7 billion over 20 years from investors who bought certificates of deposit, or CDs, at his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua. Prosecutors said Stanford told investors their funds were being safely invested when he actually spent i...

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