Stanford feels the heat in Texas jail

HOUSTON (Reuters) -- Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of a $7 billion fraud, should be transferred to another detention facility because there has been no air conditioning in the jail cell where he is being held, his lawyer said in a court filing.

"For at least a week, during the hottest part of the summer, with outside temperatures of 100 degrees (38 Celsius) or more, the place where Allen Stanford is being held as a pretrial detainee has had no air conditioning and for part of that time was without power altogether," Stanford's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said in a court filing Sunday.

Stanford, who has been in custody since his arrest on June 18, is being housed in a single cell that he shares with between eight and 10 other men, according to the filing.

A representative of the federal detention center located about 40 miles north of Houston said in an e-mail that he had no comment on DeGuerin's specific allegations but said that the facility has full power and air conditioning.

Stanford, whose net worth was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008, faces criminal charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme centered around his offshore bank in Antigua.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner, who ruled that Stanford should stay in jail until trial, has denied a previous request from DeGuerin to move his client to downtown Houston.

The criminal case, USA v. Stanford et al, is filed under case 4:09-cr-00342 in federal court in Houston.