Acquittal for Businessman Indicted on Federal Bribery and Money Laundering Charges

Politics, unfortunately, can sometimes be a dirty business. We can never fully purge corruption from our political system and sometimes innocent people get caught up in the middle of unsavory political schemes for which they are neither aware of nor responsible for.  Vernon “Trey” Farthing III, faced up to 25 years in prison for unknowingly being involved with Texas State Senator Carlos Uresti and County Judge Jimmy Galindo, who both pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.

However, Farthing can now rest easy.  After a hotly contested jury trial, Trey Farthing was acquitted of any and all charges, thanks to the help of his legal defense team which included Gerald “Gerry” Goldstein, Cynthia Orr, John Torrey Hunter, and Abasi Daudi Major of Goldstein Goldstein Hilley &Orr.

Farthing’s trial revolved around payments to former state Sen. Carlos Uresti who, in an unrelated scheme, had already been convicted of 11 felonies including money laundering and fraud, connected to his role as general counsel and minority shareholder of Four Winds Logistics, an oilfield services company that was revealed to be an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

In 2006, Farthing’s company, Physicians Network Association (PNA), was seeking to provide medical services to convicted, undocumented Federal Bureau of Prison inmates to be housed at the Reeves County Correctional Center in Pecos, Texas.  Former Reeves County judge, Jimmy Galindo, convinced Farthing to bring on Senator Uresti as a consultant to the tune of $10,000 a month, to assist PNA with community relations and business expansion.

Galindo, who represented the county as chief budgeting officer and was responsible for negotiating the PNA contract, testified that he advised Farthing to raise the price PNA would charge per inmate to pay for Uresti’s consulting cost.

Unbeknownst to Farthing, however, was the fact that Uresti was actually splitting his $10,000 fee with Galindo. Galindo, retired the same year the contract with PNA began and all told, Uresti and Galindo split over $850,000 during the term of the 10-year long contract.

After three and half weeks of trial, jurors took only 13 hours to find Farthing not guilty of all charges.  Cynthia Orr, speaking to the San Antonio Express-News said, “We were very confident in our client’s innocence, and we’re so glad that the system worked.”  Gerry Goldstein added that “this case just goes to show you what can happen if you get a fair trial.”