We probably should have seen this coming.
Billionaire Texas banker Allen Stanford is considering hiring Dick DeGuerin — the heavy-hitting Texas defense lawyer who has represented a string of big-name clients, including former House Speaker Tom DeLay — to defend him on charges that he orchestrated an $8 billion Ponzi scheme, reports BusinessWeek.
The magazine sources that news to “a person familiar with the securities fraud investigation” into Stanford, and adds:
A secretary for DeGuerin says the attorney had been contacted about representing Stanford, but declined to comment further.
The list of high-wattage clients that DeGuerin — who’s said to be particularly adept at cross examining witnesses — has represented includes cult leader David Koresh; Texas judge Samuel Kent, who was accused of sexually harassing a subordinate; Robert Durst, the son of a New York real estate mogul, who was acquitted of a gruesome murder … and DeLay, who was indicted in 2005 by a Texas prosecutor, on charges of conspiring to violate the state’s election laws.
The last is perhaps the most interesting. Back in the good old days, Stanford and DeLay appear to have been pretty tight. According to federal campaign finance records examined by the Dallas Morning News, DeLay “made at least 11 trips on Stanford planes between 2003 and 2006.”
Not that DeGuerin is obscure — but is it possible Stanford’s old friend DeLay could have helped get the two together?
At this point, the charges against Stanford, brought by the SEC, are civil, rather than criminal. But in an ominous development, Stanford’s number two, James Davis, said yesterday through a lawyer that he’d cooperate with federal criminal investigators.
So if DeGuerin really is on the case, this could be his toughest assignment yet.