Stanford in hospital

HOUSTON - Texas financier Sir Allen Stanford, jailed on charges of bilking investors out of US$7 billion, has been hospitalised with an irregular heartbeat and high pulse, the judge in his case said yesterday.

Sir Allen was set to appear in a Houston federal courtroom for a hearing on whether he could get a new attorney. His current lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, has asked for permission to quit the case because he doesn't have assurances he will be paid.

In the same courtroom, Sir Allen former finance chief, James. M. Davis, pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts: conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud and conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

Davis' attorney David Finn has previously said that Davis, 60, cooperated with prosecutors and the guilty plea was part of a deal with the Justice Department in exchange for a possible reduced sentence. He will be sentenced on November 20 and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Sir Allen, Davis and other executives of the now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group are accused of orchestrating a massive pyramid scheme by advising clients to invest more than US$7 billion in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in Antigua and then misusing the money.

Before the hearing, DeGuerin said Sir Allen was taken from the privately-run prison where he is being held outside Houston about 5:30 a.m. yesterday to the Conroe Regional Medical Centre.

United States District Judge David Hittner said Sir Allen had an irregular heartbeat and an "extremely" high pulse.

A spokeswoman for Conroe Regional Medical Centre declined to release any information to The Associated Press.

Hittner postponed a hearing scheduled for yesterday in which he was to hear arguments about Sir Allen's legal representation.

Sir Allen was considered one of the richest men in the United States with an estimated net worth of more than US$2 billion. But he claims he is now penniless.

Last month, his spokesman said the jailed financier had hired Washington, D.C.-based attorney Robert Luskin, who also represents former White House political adviser Karl Rove. But Luskin also wants assurances he'll get paid, and Hittner won't release DeGuerin until an attorney takes the case unconditionally. (AP)