The jury in the fraud trial of State Sen. Carlos Uresti heard loud and clear today that Fourwinds Logistics, the company that Uresti helped obtain investors, was as crooked as can be, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Laura Jacobs, who was the bookkeeper for the firm, testified that the partners were telling would-be investors that Fourwinds, which purported to sell fracking sand to Eagle Ford oilfield service companies, was capitalized with $18.7 million in the bank, when in fact it had less than $100,000.
Jacobs testified that spreadsheets were doctored and bank statements were fudged and the doctored documents were shown to would-be investors.
The company CEO has already pled guilty.
Uresti is accused of luring investors to put their money in Fourwinds knowing that the firm was a 'Ponzi scheme.'
But defense lawyers say Uresti was a 'rain maker' whose job it was to use his connections to find investors interested in the company. They say he would not have known anything about the falsified bank documents, saying Uresti was scammed by the company's CEO as well.I
f convicted, Uresti would face up to 20 years in prison.