Tarnished cricket tycoon Stanford ''living on charity''

Denise Richards’ fun bags up for grabsWashington, Apr. 24 : Tarnished cricket-loving Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is living on charity, according to his 30-year-old fiancée Andrea Stoelker.

When the FBI found him, Stanford, who was once known for his larger than life existence, was served with fraud charges related to an eight billion dollar Caribbean pyramid scheme, had taken refuge at the family home of his 30-year-old fiancée, Andrea Stoelker, a modest town house that was a far cry from the mansions and castles of his privileged life further south.

Stoelker told The Independent in an interview that the couple has been under siege since the fraud charges were levelled, unable to gain access to any money or even to get back into their homes to retrieve their clothes.

"We''re lucky to be living on the charity of my family at the moment, but it has been overwhelming," Stoelker told The Independent, in her first public comments since her fiancé''s downfall.

"We are very blessed to have a lot of people around us who are supportive, and some great former employees who are standing by him, but it is difficult to get up some mornings," she added.

Stoelker, 29 years Stanford''s junior, has had to endure open season on her fiancé''s private life, including a blizzard of reports about his past philandering and infidelities and about the six children he has fathered by various women.

All the children have been supportive of their father during the past few months, Stoelker said.

The camera crews have gone now, and Stanford is spending more time in Houston, where he is launching his defence, beginning with a string of interviews with US networks this week. The outlines of that defence are becoming clearer.

In his own words: "If anything that was going on wasn''t correct, I didn''t know about it." (ANI)

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