Federal prosecutors rested their fraud case against State Senator Carlos Uresti late this morning, but U.S. District Judge David Ezra then immediately rejected a request by Uresti's lawyers for a 'directed verdict' of innocent, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"There is not one scintilla of evidence that Carols Uresti's comments alone convinced one one investor to invest," defense attorney Mike McCrum said.
Uresti is facing eleven counts of ripping off people who invested large sums of money in Fourwinds Logistics, a fracking sand company which prosecutors say was a 'Ponzi scheme.'
"There is also no evidence that Uresti knew this firm was mismanaged," McCrum said.
But prosecutors, with their final witness, heard testimony that even before Uresti met Stan Bates, the CEO of Fourwinds, he was told that 'Bates was a con man.' Prosecutors also allege that Uresti did not disclose the fact that he was making a healthy percentage off of every investment he got for the company, enough to take him from bouncing checks in 2012 to buying a $2 million home in Helotes in 2014.
Judge Ezra said his ruling does not indicate that he thinks Uresti is guilty or will be found guilty, only that 'the evidence does back up the arguments by the prosecution.'
Uresti claims that he had no knowledge whatsoever of Fourwinds' financial picture, that he didn't' even have a key to the office. He was simply a 'finder' of investors, which is why he didn't register as a 'securities broker,' which is one of the charges against him.