HOUSTON, TEXAS (AP) -- A federal judge in Dallas says he will consider a modest request for money to pay lawyers and accountants to comb through R. Allen Stanford's personal assets to find money untainted by an alleged $7 billion fraud.

The Texas financier asked U.S. District Judge David Godbey more than two months ago to order the court-appointed receiver in the Securities and Exchange Commission civil case against him to place $10 million in an escrow account to cover attorney fees and legal costs.

Godbey said in an order earlier this week that he would "entertain" a modest request to pay lawyers and accountants to help "demonstrate the existence of personal assets unrelated to and untainted by the alleged fraud."

Attorney Dick DeGuerin said in the Houston Chronicle yesterday that no money has been made available.

Stanford is accused of a massive Ponzi scheme involving the now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group.

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