Uresti sentenced to 12 years for fraud
Longtime legislator held some shares in San Antonio-based Ponzi scheme
Former State Sen. Carlos Uresti was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for fraud Tuesday, the final, stunning unraveling of a political and legal career that took him from San Antonio’s working class South Side to the Texas Capitol.
Uresti, who resigned from the Senate last week and gave up his law license in March after his conviction on 11 felony charges, also was ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution to his victims and to serve under three years of federal supervision after his release.
The longtime San Antonio Democrat was convicted in February of charges that included wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his roles at FourWinds Logistics, which bought and sold sand used for oil production. The company, however, was a Ponzi scheme and collapsed into bankruptcy in 2015.
Uresti served as FourWinds’ outside legal counsel, was a 1 percent owner, and recruited investors.
In a statement to the court before being sentenced, Uresti said he had tried to rationalize his
conduct after his conviction and wrongly blamed everyone but himself.
“There’s no one to blame but me,” Uresti said. “All my life I had direction and purpose. I lost that direction and purpose. Instead, I followed opportunity.”
He appeared to show no emotion when the sentence was announced and was allowed to remain free on bail until after a separate bribery trial later this year. Uresti was defiant speaking to reporters moments after learning his fate, however.
Asked if the sentence was fair and just, he replied, “I don’t believe so. My family doesn’t believe so, and my legal team doesn’t believe that 12 years is just and fair.” Uresti said he would pursue an appeal and vowed “to continue to fight.”
Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra said Uresti had “abandoned the principles” that had allowed him to rise from blue collar roots to become a captain in the Marine Corps, put himself through law school, and ultimately hold a long legislative career in which he twice beat the odds in major election upsets.
“There is no one in this great country of ours who stands above the law,” Ezra said. “A substantial sentence is warranted.”
Uresti had faced, under recommended guidelines, a sentence between 168 to 210 months, or 14 to 17 years. Federal prosecutors initially argued for more. The judge granted Uresti some leniency, but not the two- to three-year sentence that the former lawmaker’s lawyer, Mike McCrum, wanted.
“I think the sentence today is ridiculous, with all due respect to the judge,” said McCrum, who asked Ezra to also consider Uresti’s years of public service and the good he did on behalf of abused children, veterans and others with his legislative work.
McCrum also argued that Uresti only got $48,000 from his involvement with FourWinds — “less than 1 percent of the monies that were lost in total.”
Uresti’s statement to the court before sentencing was lengthy and emotional. He apologized to each of his victims. His voice cracked when he talked about how he had brought shame and embarrassment on his family.
“I truly feel remorseful, ashamed, disappointed, disgraced, angry at myself and sad,” Uresti said. “Your honor, you are correct. I should have known. I should have asked more questions. I should have stepped up.”
More than 40 Uresti family members, friends and other supporters packed the courtroom in the John H. Wood Jr. Federal Courthouse. Many donned blue ribbons and blue rubber wrist bands bearing Uresti’s name and inscribed “Blue Ribbon Task Force,” which he helped create while in the Legislature to combat child abuse.
One person who was conspicuously absent was Denise Cantu, the star prosecution witness in the case. She invested in FourWinds on the recommendation of Uresti, who had been on the legal team that got her a $2.5 million settlement over the deaths of two of her children in a 2010 vehicle accident.
She had invested $900,000 of her settlement money and lost $800,000 of it, one of a handful of investors with the company when it collapsed.
Uresti got a $27,000 commission on her investment and stood to make a cut of any profits she made, something she testified at his trial that she wasn’t told.
Outside the courthouse following the 2 ½-hour hearing, U.S. Attorney John Bash called the sentence “fair.”
“It really sends a message that, as the judge said, it doesn’t matter who you are,” Bash said. “You’re held to the same standard of justice as every other citizen of this country.”