Mud flies in Stanford trial

HOUSTON — Lawyers for jailed financier R. Allen Stanford tried to persuade a jury here that his former money man was the real brains behind a scheme to bilk billions from investors, branding him a “liar, hypocrite, adulterer, fraudster and coward.”

And then they broke for lunch.

In exchanges that frequently turned contentious, defense attorney Robert Scardino attempted to get James Davis, Stanford’s former financial chief officer, to admit that he was the one who orchestrated what the government alleges was a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Waving a series of faxes requesting money from a Swiss bank account that Davis had earlier characterized as a “slush fund,” Scardino asked whose signature was on them, forcing Davis to admit it was his.

Scardino also showed a pair of $400,000 checks from Stanford to Davis that the attorney indicated had never been reported to the IRS, and traced deposits from Stanford into a dormant bank account set up for Davis’ sons’ rock band that ended up funding businesses Davis owned.

The lawyer further suggested that Davis might have stolen $6 million from his employer in December 2008, pointing to a wire transfer from the Swiss bank to an account in Antigua for which Davis was a signatory.

Scardino had earlier challenged Davis’ character by asking about an affair he had with another Stanford employee.