NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors have narrowed their criminal case against Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.The government on Wednesday filed an amended, 14-count indictment with the US District Court in Houston that drops five mail-fraud counts and two wire-fraud counts. It also dropped part of a conspiracy count.Four co-defendants in the original June 2009 indictment were also dropped from the amended indictment. They are scheduled to go on trial after Stanford’s trial.Stanford, who has denied wrongdoing, has been in federal custody since June 2009. It was unclear why the case was narrowed. The US Department of Justice was not available to comment.Prosecutors accused Stanford, 61, of running a fraud centred on the sale of bogus certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank in Antigua.They said the one-time billionaire used proceeds in part to fund other ventures and a lavish lifestyle that included several yachts and private jets, and homes around the world.The new indictment accused Stanford of five counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud.