(Newser)
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R. Allen Stanford is only pretending to have amnesia, prosecutors told a judge yesterday, urging him to declare the alleged Ponzi schemer fit to stand trial. Stanford's trial has been on hold since January, when doctors testified that he might have suffered a brain injury in a prison brawl. But prosecutors are citing a new prison evaluation that concluded that Stanford was performing so poorly on his neuropsychological tests that he must be "blatantly simulating cognitive defects."
Stanford began complaining of amnesia in February, and recently began claiming he couldn't remember anything prior to the assault, Bloomberg reports. But doctors say his complaints are "not credible" because his spontaneous recall seemed unimpaired. Prison staffers report that he freely converses with visitors about current events and his past life experiences, and a scan of his brain revealed no damage to the sections controlling memory. Stanford's lawyers, citing their own experts, insist he remains unfit to stand trial. He is accused of bilking $7 billion from investors.
