Allen Stanford‘s trial doesn’t begin until January, and most of last week’s news stories about him pertained to recently released photos of him in the immediate aftermath of a brutal beating last year at the hands of fellow inmates at a federal prison in Texas.
But there are still local repercussions of the disgraced Houston financier’s alleged $8 billion Ponzi scheme, including a lawsuit filed by Little Rock restaurateur Capi Peck against her father’s widow, Hannah Peck.
Hannah Peck, who is trustee of the Peck Family Trust, revealed in a short-lived federal lawsuit that she had invested an undisclosed amount in Stanford’s Antiguan certificates of deposit, which turned out to be worthless.
In her complaint, filed Oct. 25, the owner of Trio’s and Capi’s restaurants alleges that Hannah Peck got the money she subsequently lost on the Stanford CDs by selling a work of art by 20th century American sculptor Alexander Calder that had been given to Capi Peck by her father.
Calder is probably most famous for his mobiles, usually flat pieces of painted metal that hang in balance and are suspended by wire. He was also a painter and jeweler.
The nature and value of the artwork are not specified in the complaint, which claims only that its worth exceeds the $75,000 jurisdictional limit of U.S. federal district courts.
This month, a large Calder sculpture sold for $6.3 million in a Christie’s auction, while in June, a mobile brought $3.1 million at a French auction.
When contacted, neither Capi Peck nor Hannah Peck would comment on the case.
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