Apr.21, 2010

HOUSTON — A federal judge has scheduled a September hearing to determine if Texas financier R. Allen Stanford and three executives have to pay for their legal battle against charges of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

Attorneys representing Stanford and the executives are being paid through an insurance policy. But the insurer says the policy doesn't pay on charges of money laundering, which Stanford and others are accused of doing.

Last month, an appeals court ruled the insurer must continue paying the legal fees until a lower court determines if money laundering was committed.

Stanford and his associates are accused of bilking clients through Stanford's bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua.