Declarations – South Central

He Owed Them

‘I owed it to each writer to consider them.”

—U.S. District Judge David Hittner comments on the 350 letters he received from investors defrauded by former billionaire Allen Stanford that detailed the impact of the fraud on their lives. Hittner sentenced Stanford to 110 years in prison on June 14 for running a $7 billion scheme in which he stole money from his investors to finance an extravagant lifestyle in the Caribbean. The judge, who said he read all of the letters, said Stanford’s actions were among the most “egregious criminal frauds.”

More than Money

“My name means more to me than money and that’s why we didn’t settle.”

—Actor Kevin Costner said his reputation was at stake as he defended himself against accusations that he cheated fellow actor Stephen Baldwin out of millions of dollars in a lucrative BP contract for oil-cleaning machines after the 2010 Gulf oil spill. Baldwin and a friend were seeking $17 million in damages, saying they could have made at least that much in the deal. A federal jury sided with Costner and gave Baldwin and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris, nothing.

Sorely Needed

“As the state of Louisiana and the United States of America loses over a football field every hour, this project is sorely needed to protect the coastline.”

—Col. Edward Fleming, commander of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers New Orleans operations, comments on the start of a $428 million project to restore two parts of Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline. The strategy will use levees, floodwalls and coastal restoration projects to reduce the risk from hurricane storm surges. It was developed by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation before Hurricane Katrina and adopted by the corps.