Banged up, Allen Stanford back in jail after brawl

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Allen Stanford, the alleged mastermind of a $7 billion fraud, is back in his jail cell after suffering a mild concussion, broken nose and two black eyes in a prison brawl last week, his lawyer said on Monday.

Stanford, 59, was injured in a fight on Thursday with a fellow inmate at the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, and was hospitalized over the weekend.

"I don't have any reason to believe that he was targeted in some way because of who he is," said Kent Schaffer, Stanford's court-appointed attorney. Schaffer said he had no details of the altercation, or who else was involved.

"He's in reasonably good spirits although he was feeling a lot of physical discomfort," Schaffer told Reuters. "He was trying to get rest yesterday afternoon after he returned to the jail."

Stanford has called conditions in the prison "intolerable" and has requested a transfer out of the facility, 40 miles north of Houston, where he has been held since his arrest in June.

He has denied allegations that he ran a Ponzi scheme targeting clients of his offshore bank in Antigua. He faces life in prison if convicted of all 21 criminal charges against him.

Last month, Stanford spent five days in the hospital undergoing heart tests.

(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)