Cricket mogul Stanford out of prison hospital

Chicago: Financier and cricket mogul Allen Stanford has moved out of a prison hospital where he was being treated for drug addiction, federal prison records showed Thursday.

Stanford had been scheduled to stand trial in September for an alleged USD 7 billion Ponzi scheme, but the hearing was postponed to sometime in early 2012 after a judge ruled he was temporarily unfit to stand trial. Government psychiatrists and Stanford`s legal team testified that he was suffering from bouts of delirium linked to his dependency on powerful anti-anxiety medication. They found the 60-year-old was also depressed due to a brain injury he sustained during a 2009 jailhouse brawl, and recommended he be weaned off the drug. The flamboyant Texan has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen counts of fraud, money laundering and obstruction. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. Stanford is currently being held in a federal prison transfer facility in Oklahoma. A new trial date has not yet been posted in the court`s system. A self-described "maverick," Stanford hit international sports headlines by creating the eponymous Stanford Super Series Twenty20 cricket competition. The USD 20 million winner-take-all match appalled many in the cricket world by challenging the sacrosanct traditional cricket establishment. In Antigua, he was a larger-than-life figure, the island`s largest employer and the recipient of a 2006 knighthood. But after the allegations against hi surfaced, much of his support dwindled and the England and Wales Cricket Board cut ties with him. Stanford launched a USD 7.2 billion countersuit in February against federal agents alleging violations of his civil rights and illegal prosecution. Bureau Report