R. Allen Stanford mug shot
DALLAS – Two Louisiana defense firms have been accused of helping financial mogul R. Allen Stanford misappropriate $7 billon in funds from investors.
Stanford is currently enmeshed in a criminal trial where he is accused of the second biggest case of investor fraud in the country's history, after that of Bernie Madoff.
Stanford has been in the custody of authorities since 2009 while his former companies have been in the receivership of Ralph S. Janvey.
Janvey on behalf of the Official Stanford Investors Committee filed the suit on Feb. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against New Orleans-based Adams and Reese LLP and Baton Rouge-based Breazeale, Sachse and Winston LLP.
The defendants are asserted to have helped financier Stanford and Stanford Financial defraud investors of more than $7 billion from 1998 to 2009. The defendants are alleged to have been complicit in Stanford's supposed criminal actions and the plaintiffs are attempting to hold them liable for their reputed bad actions.
Damages in the amount of $1.8 million are being sought by the plaintiff.
A similar suit was filed on Feb. 17, 2011, but was dismissed because some of the defendants were never served.
Janvey is being represented by Guy M. Hohmann of Austin-based Hohmann, Taube and Summers LLP.
Docket number 3:12-cv-00495-N has been assigned to U.S. Federal Judge David C. Godbey.