Decision of whether insurer will pay legal bills for Texas financier Stanford in judge’s hands

Fate of Stanford’s legal fees in hands of judge

HOUSTON — A four-day hearing on whether jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford and two of his former company executives will continue having their legal bills paid for by an insurance policy — as they fight charges of bilking investors out of $7 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme — has ended.

It will now be up to U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas to decide the issue, but she wasn’t expected to issue her decision until a later date.

During the hearing, which ended Friday, Stanford’s financial dealings were examined. Attorneys for the insurer say secret loans and fabricated records show Stanford and the ex-executives committed money laundering, which would invalidate the insurance policy.

But attorneys for all three men say their clients did nothing wrong and ran a legitimate business.