Federal prosecutors seek 230-year sentence for financier
Stanford  [JURIST] Federal prosecutors urged a judge on
Wednesday to give Allen Stanford [BBC profile; JURIST news
archive] the maximum sentence of 230 years in prison for his
involvement in a $47 million Ponzi scheme. This would be the
maximum sentence [Reuters report] under federal sentencing
guidelines and 90 more years than Bernard Madoff [JURIST news
archive] received in 2009. Defense lawyers for Stanford, who has
been in prison for three years, are seeking a sentence of 31 to
44 months, which could lead to his immediate release. Stanford
was convicted [JURIST report] on 13 of 14 charges, including
conspiracy to commit wire or mail fraud, conspiracy to obstruct
a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website]
investigation, obstruction of an SEC investigation and
conspiracy to commit money laundering in addition to five counts
of wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud. He was acquitted on
one charge of wire fraud. Stanford's sentenci