Former State Senator Carlos Uresti Enters Guilty Plea to Conspiring to Bribe Public Official

(Press Release) In San Antonio, former District 19 Texas State Senator Carlos I. Uresti pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs.

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad, Uresti pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.  By pleading guilty, Uresti admitted that from January 2006 to September 2016, he conspired with others to facilitate the payment of bribes to former Reeves County Judge Jimmy Galindo in exchange for Judge Galindo’s official actions concerning a Reeves County Correctional Center medical services contract.  Uresti further admitted to collecting $10,000 a month as a marketing consultant.  Approximately half of that sum was then given to Judge Galindo as a facilitation of the bribe and for his support to award the contract to a specific company at a more favorable price to that company.

Uresti, who faces up to five years in federal prison on the bribery conspiracy charge, remains on bond pending sentencing scheduled for January 14, 2019, before Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra.

On June 26, 2018, Uresti was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $6.3 million in restitution.  A jury convicted Uresti on various federal charges regarding his role in an investment Ponzi scheme centered on a company which purportedly bought and sold fracking sand for oil production, FourWinds, Inc.  The jury found that Uresti recruited investors under false pretenses by lying about investing his own money in FourWinds as well as failing to disclose his receipt of a commission and a percentage of the profits resulting from investments in FourWinds.  Jurors also found that Uresti was not registered as a broker with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and that he and others engaged in money laundering with the proceeds of their fraud scheme.

The FBI’s Public Corruption Task Force is conducting this investigation. The Task Force includes investigators from the FBI, IRS-CI, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Peace Corps-Office of Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph E. Blackwell and Sean O’Connell are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.