Some Stanford Assets Were Profitable Before U.S. Seizure, Ex-CFO Testifies [Bloomberg]
James M. Davis, Stanford Financial Group Co.’s former finance chief, told jurors that R. Allen Stanford’s businesses collapsed in part because the stock market imploded and a court-appointed receiver destroyed much of the companies’ value after they were seized by the government. Davis, testifying for the government under a plea deal at Stanford’s federal court trial in Houston, was shown a letter he wrote shortly after regulators seized Stanford’s companies in February 2009. “There was from the start never a thought to put the clients in harm’s way in this process, never a hint of criminal intent,” Robert Scardino, a lawyer for Stanford, read from the letter, which Davis said he wrote to an attorney he was trying to hire to defend him at the time. “The underlying global business growth model remained strong,” Davis wrote in the letter, adding that some of Stanford’s businesses were moving toward profitability. “Isn’t that 180 degrees opposite from what you’ve been telling this jury?” Scardino asked Davis. “You said these companies had no value.” Davis responded, “A number of the companies Stanford owned were growing; they were worth something.” The 2009 letter “could be true under certain circumstances,” he said.
MS: "[T]here is really no commitment from the Obama administration for broad-based tax reform. The administration's lack of interest in comprehensive reform is evident in its non-endorsement of any of the recommendations of the commissions[.]"
[Hatch] was ordered to pay 25 percent of his gross income to the IRS as part of his sentence for violating terms of his supervised release. He sought the reduced payment, saying he’d earned only $500 since being freed in December.
Joe Kristan cliarifies the truthiness.
This raucous hearing will include E&Y's Tom Neubig, Director of Quantitative Economics and Statistics (how's that for a title?).
900 pounds worth.