Federal judge rules on oil and gas businessman Brian Alfaro's bid for shorter prison sentence

Convicted felon Brian Alfaro, the former San Antonio oil and gas businessman who swindled investors, has failed in a bid to have his eight-year prison sentence cut short. U.S District Judge Fred Biery on Friday denied Alfaro’s request to have the sentence shortened to 78 months from 97 months. Alfaro, 55, argued in a Feb. 20 motion that his term of imprisonment was based on a sentencing range that had since been shortened by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency that establishes policies and practices for federal courts. Those include guidelines for the appropriate form and severity of punishment. Biery ruled Alfaro is ineligible for a reduction in part because he caused “substantial financial hardship” to at least one of his victims.

The judge also found he wasn’t eligible for a reduction because he hadn’t been assessed “status points” in his case. Such points are included as part of the sentencing guidelines if a defendant committed his offense “while under any criminal justice sentence, including probation, parole, supervised release, imprisonment or work release, or escape status.” A defendant may be eligible for a sentence reduction if he didn’t already receive an adjustment for his “aggravating role” in the crime and was not engaged in a “continuing criminal enterprise.” But Biery ruled Alfaro had received an adjustment and had engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise. After an eight-day trial in 2020, a jury found Alfaro guilty on seven counts of mail fraud. His company promoted oil and gas wells to investors, who bought units in the drilling projects.