[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Allen Stanford's former research analyst testified earlier this week that Stanford's top management told him to alter investment returns, but that the Texas financier never asked him to do anything illegal.  Speaking on his 10 years at the now-defunct Stanford Financial Group, Mark Collinsworth testifed that former Stanford executives James Davis and Laura Holt asked him to change returns on investments to positive from negative in 2008, to hide the fact that the portfolio was not making money. Stanford, 61, is on trial for an alleged $17 billion scheme that prosecutors say was used to strip investors in more than 100 countries through sales of fradulent certificates of deposit from his offshore bank in Antigua.  He has pled not guilty to charges in a 14-count indictment with fraud and conspiracy. Testimony. In U.S. District Court, Mr. Collinsworth was questioned by Stanford's lawyer, Ali Fazel, as part of Stanford's legal strategy to show that the former financier was a visionary who left the day-to-day operations of his businesses to other executives like Davis and Holt.  Both have been charged in the alleged Ponzi scheme.  Davis was the firm's CFO and second-in-command for Stanford's business; he pled guilty in 2009 and is the chief prosecution's witness against Stanford.  Holt was the chief investment officer at the Stanford office in Memphis, Tennessee;  she has pled not guilty and is expected to go on trial in June. In addition to the direction to alter investment returns, Stanford was unaware of Davis hiring unqualified people like his ranch hand and his preacher to be financial analysts in the firm's Memphis office.  Holt married her personal trainer and then gave him money to start a hedge fund that did business with Stanford entities, which Collinsworth called "double dipping," by sending Stanford business his way. Unqualified people were also hired as analysts, Collinsworth said. The case: USA v. Stanford et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, No. 09r-00342. For more details, go to [Reuters, 1/31/12].