Convicted San Antonio oil-and-gas businessman Brian Alfaro gets prison sentence reduced

Brian Alfaro, the San Antonio oil-and-gas businessman-turned-felon, has gotten two years shaved off his prison sentence. Alfaro, who received a 121-month prison term at a sentencing in November 2020, had the sentence cut to eight years and one month Tuesday. A federal appeals court had ordered his resentencing. The 53 year old also had the amount he’ll owe victims of his crimes trimmed by about $500,000, to $9.4 million.

In February 2020 a jury found him guilty on seven counts of mail fraud after an eight-day trial. His company developed and promoted oil and gas wells to investors, who purchased unit shares in the drilling projects. Prosecutors told jurors that Alfaro used investors’ money to support a lavish lifestyle, including buying a $500,000-plus Lamborghini and Spurs season tickets. Alfaro did not take the stand in his own defense. He appealed the sentence but not his conviction. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in April agreed with Alfaro in finding that Biery erred during sentencing by not accepting the prosecutors’ concession on the actual financial losses suffered by the victims in the case. That resulted in the judge incorrectly calculating the sentencing guideline range. The ruling wasn’t a complete victory for Alfaro because the appeals court rejected his other arguments about how Biery incorrectly sentenced him.