Stanford's Shredded Florida Papers Being Reassembled
July 24, 2009
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins
Shredded documents seized from R. Allen Stanford's South Florida offices are being pieced back together by prosecutors probing
allegations the Texas financier ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said federal prosecutors told him yesterday that within the
next two months they will have "re-assembled the contents of three bags of shredded documents," according to a report posted
today on the court's Web site.
The shredded evidence will initially be used against Bruce Perraud, a former Stanford Financial Group security specialist who
is charged with destroying documents after an investigation began. Perraud's trial date, set for Aug. 24, will probably change
to accommodate his lawyer's vacation plans, Seltzer said.
Stanford, four of his executives and Antigua's former top banking regulator are charged with defrauding investors of as much
as $7 billion through bogus certificates of deposit sold by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. The charges mirror U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission civil claims filed against Stanford and three of his companies on Feb. 17.
Perraud, who isn't accused of participating in the alleged fraud, worked at Stanford's Fort Lauderdale office, according to
an indictment unsealed in June. Prosecutors claim Perraud told a document-shredding company to destroy a 95-gallon bin full of
papers on Feb. 25, a week after a Texas judge presiding over the SEC case issued an order forbidding the alteration, removal or
destruction of Stanford Financial records.
Edward Shohat, Perraud's lawyer, said in a July 22 telephone interview that his client intends to fight the charge.
Prosecutors told Seltzer that, in addition to the reassembled shredded documents, they intend to use six seized computer hard
drives as evidence against Perraud.
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