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The formerly wealthy financier, who had his assets frozen in February, has been unable to pay his counsel Dick DeGuerin, the celebrated criminal attorney who has for months tried to withdraw from defending his client. Stanford said he wanted to replace DeGuerin with Robert Luskin, a Washington lawyer who defended President Bush's adviser, Karl Rove, against accusations that he was involved in leaking the identity of a CIA spy. But according to the Houston Chronicle, U.S. District Judge David Hittner asked Stanford whether Luskin might run into the same problem, since his assets have been frozen. The judge asked him: "Do you have sufficient funds to retain an attorney to represent you?" Stanford replied: "I don't know the answer to that, your honor." "The case has to get ready for trial. This is the business before the court," Hittner said. "The man needs an attorney." The judge then appointed public defender Michael Sokolow. Marjorie Meyers, the head of the federal public defender office in Houston, told the paper she expects to ask Hittner to add private criminal defense attorney Kent Schaffer to the case as well. Schaffer is a longtime criminal defense attorney in Houston with a federal and state practice who has handled numerous high-profile trials and has represented U.S. Rep. Craig Washington, Oscar Wyatt, author Clifford Irving and late Houston Astros star Ken Caminiti. Stanford faces 21 counts of conspiracy, fraud, bribery and obstruction of justice. He and co-defendants are accused of bilking investors in a $7 billion fraud involving certificates of deposit issued by an Antiguan bank that was part of the Stanford Financial Group. The judge has refused him bail on the grounds that he amounts to a flight risk, owning homes in Antigua and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A senior lieutenant in Stanford's business empire, former finance chief James Davis, has pleaded guilty and is helping prosecutors build a case against Stanford. And, it gets better, a Las Vegas casino, the Bellagio, is suing Stanford for $258,480 in gambling debts. - Donna Block See story from the Houston Chronicle
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Jailed Ponzi schemer and cricket enthusiast R. Allen Stanford wanted a high-priced attorney to defend him; instead, he's getting a public defender. 
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