Motion Seeks to Oust Baker Botts from Role in Stanford Case

Lawyers representing accused financier R. Allen Stanford are seeking to get Baker Botts removed from a role in the case.

Baker Botts represents the court-appointed receiver overseeing Stanford’s businesses. Court papers claim the law firm has a conflict of interest because it represented Stanford and his father from 1985 to 1987 and helped set up the offshore bank now accused of promising improbable returns on certificates of deposit in an $8 billion investment fraud, according to reports by Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg.

"Baker Botts' flagrant violation of its duty of loyalty to the Stanford defendants warrants its immediate disqualification from the instant litigation," the motion says. The filing seeks to block the law firm, which has already billed millions of dollars of fees in the case, from testifying against Stanford, the CNBC report says.

Baker Botts spokesman Michael Cinelli told Reuters and CNBC that the law firm has no record of ever representing Stanford or the offshore bank, although the firm did represent a related party seeking to do business in the Caribbean. The work involved only 5 ½ hours of lawyer time and $850 in billings.

Stanford faces a civil suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and has not been indicted on criminal charges.