Carlos Uresti, photo by Texas Tribune, some rights reserved.
State Senator Carlos Uresti represents State Senate District 19, which includes the cities of Dilley, Pearsall, Carrizo Springs, Big Wells, Pleasanton, Poteet, and Somerset. On Februrary 22, 2018, Uresti was found guilty of eleven counts of criminal fraud charges.
October 2012 – Democratic State Senator Carlos Uresti represents Denise Cantu in a wrongful death suit. In 2010, 30-year-old mother Denise Cantu lost her 13-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son, and two friends after a rollover accident. By the end of the lawsuit, the mother won over $2.5 million, of which Uresti collected $946,000 in fees.
But Uresti had an idea for the mother and client, Denise Cantu, regarding what to do with the rest of money: invest in FourWinds Logistics sand company. Uresti had a 1% stake in the company and the state senator was paid commission for attracting investors.
State Senator Carlos Uresti, also a practicing personal injury lawyer, convinced Denise Cantu, who had just lost her two children, to invest $900,000, the bulk of the remainder of her settlement, in a company in which he had an ownership stake.
Uresti received a $27,000 commission on Cantu’s investment, a 10% stake in Cantu’s venture with FourWinds, a $40,000 loan, and performed legal services for the firm.
2013-2015 – Ferraris, prostitutes, hiring “Barbies,” diamond rings, expensive suits, alleged drug use, bounced checks, and a deep network of prominent San Antonio democrats at Fourwinds Logistics…
The most in-depth article details the avalanche of ineptitude, but for breezier reads: Uresti alleged money troubles, a photo of The Barbies, snippets of testimony that describe FourWinds as a “brothel,” and this reference to “cocaine-fueled galas.“
And if that’s not scandalous enough…
Carlos Uresti began having an affair with Denise Cantu… and you can read some of the sexts here and salacious details from the testimony here…
Must Watch…Seriously…
Aaaaannnnddd…. CEO Stan Bates, a co-defendant in Uresti’s trial, also began an affair with Denise Cantu.
2015 – FourWinds Logistics goes bankrupt.
Denise Cantu loses the nearly million dollars she invested in the company based on Carlos Uresti’s advice.
San Antonio politicians are deeply embedded. FourWinds investor Richard Thum had to go to the FBI after first alerting Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood- only to find out that Nico LaHood was the business partner of Gary Cain, a FourWinds consultant.
February 16, 2017 – The FBI and IRS raid Carlos Uresti’s law offices.
If you thought the build up was bonkers, the pre-trial goes off the rails…
July 10, 2017 – A federal judge disqualifies Uresti’s attorney after it is revealed that Uresti chose an attorney who had also previously represented Denise Cantu, a victim in this case against Uresti.
Uresti then chooses Tab Turner, a civil litigation lawyer from Arkansas, to represent him in a criminal case in Texas!
November 22, 2017 – Denise Cantu, the star witness of the case, was arrested in Harlingen for aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.
December 6, 2017 – At this point, the Uresti-Cantu-Bates love triangle was not public yet, and Uresti’s lawyers throw Cantu and Bates under the bus. Uresti’s lawyers contend that the sexts between Cantu and Bates should exonerate Uresti, without any mention of Uresti’s own affair with Cantu.
December 12, 2017 – Carlos Uresti submits names to his character witness list that include US Rep Henry Cuellar, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar in addition to the original list that included Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Julián Castro and Henry Cisneros, and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. City Attorney Bobby Maldonado was not on the list, though he had previously served as Uresti’s Chief of Staff and, until 2016, occupied an office in the Uresti building that was raided by the FBI. However, a 2016 Maldonado law firm partner, Ali Hakeem, was on the witness list.
January 2, 2018 – Carlos Uresti and Gary Cain ask to be tried separately from CEO Stan Bates, with the State Senator/lawyer hoping to portray himself as a dupe, placing blame on Bates.
January 8, 2018 – CEO Stan Bates enters a surprise guilty plea. Uresti talks to the cameras outside the courthouse, avowing his innocence.
January 17, 2018 – Denise Cantu claims that Uresti urged her not to cooperate with the FBI investigation.
January 31, 2018 – Evidence reveals Uresti, who had purchased a Porsche and a $2 million home, was overdrawn on his personal and work bank accounts while he was pitching investors, and routinely bounced checks.
February 1, 2018 – Uresti and Cantu “would have sex in the bathroom of his law office,” Denise Cantu revealed on the witness stand.
February 6, 2018 – Governor Greg Abbott piles on State Senator Carlos Uresti before his trial is over, requesting the Texas Rangers investigate allegations of sexual misconduct at the state Capitol, many of which happen to be recently aimed at Uresti.
February 7, 2018 – On day 13 of Uresti’s criminal trial, his lawyers make a motion for acquittal! U.S. District Judge David Ezra says, ummmm… no.
February 16, 2018 – San Antonio Express reports that State Sen. Carlos Uresti spent $17,000 of google advertising for himself in the three months before the trial, and while he is not up for election.
February 22, 2018 – After eleven hours of deliberations, a jury found State Senator Carlos Uresti guilty of all eleven counts. Sentencing will be on June 25, but…
Uresti does not plan to step down from his seat in the State Senate and plans to appeal. Aaanndd…
Uresti has another criminal trial pending in May, related to splitting $850,000 in bribes with a former Reeves County county judge to ensure a particular company would be awarded a medical services contract for inmates at the Reeves County Correctional Center. The former county judge, Jimmy Galindo, has already plead guilty…
-written by Jose Asuncion.
Jose received an MFA from University of Southern California in 2008, a BA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003, and currently lives in Dilley, TX, home of his grandparents.