A federal judge Wednesday resentenced a Eugene man for his role in a fraudulent biodiesel scheme after an appeals court threw out his 2016 sentence.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had vacated Jack Holden’s sentence of seven years and three months, finding there wasn’t evidence to support prosecutors’ contention that Holden was the leader of the fraud or had control over his co-defendant and, therefore, deserved more time behind bars.

Yet U.S District Judge Anna J. Brown, who issued the initial sentence, didn’t alter it after the new sentencing hearing.

“I believe 87 months was reasonable then and is reasonable now,’’ Brown said, calling the prison term the lowest sentence she could justify.

The appeals court ruling changed the advisory sentencing range in the case, bringing the potential prison term from 108 to 135 months, down to a range of 87 to 108 months. When Holden was first sentenced, Brown had veered below the advisory guidelines, noting Holden’s age and health, in determining the sentence of just over seven years.

In August 2016, Brown had sentenced Holden after he was convicted of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit both offenses following a 12-day trial in the biodiesel scheme that spanned three continents.

Holden and co-defendant Lloyd Benton Sharp together defrauded 12 people who invested in a project to produce biodiesel fuel in the West African nation of Ghana. When the project failed, the two men duped the investors into providing additional money to support nonexistent projects to transport biodiesel fuel from Argentina to Chile and to build biodiesel refineries in Chile, according to prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Maddux argued that little has changed since Holden, now 78, was last sentenced. She pointed to phone calls he’s made from prison to Sharp and Sharp’s wife, in which he talked of what she called his next “great money-making scheme,’’ a plan to produce TV shows when he gets out of custody.

Defense lawyer Lisa Hay, Oregon’s federal public defender, urged a sentence of no more than five years, the same sentence given to Sharp. She dismissed prosecutors’ concerns about Holden’s phone calls to Sharp, saying they don’t contain any references to criminal conduct. In his calls to Sharp’s wife, he asked her to send money to his wife in Ghana, who’s selling fish on the street because she’s destitute and homeless, Hay said.

“These are the calls of two old men dreaming and hoping, not two people accomplishing or working at anything. And, if it were misconduct to ask old friends to support your destitute loved one while you are incarcerated, then a large portion of all federal prisoners would be in trouble,’’ Hay wrote in a sentencing memo.

Hay also argued that Holden’s health has deteriorated while he’s been in prison, having suffered a stroke last year, leaving him with neurological damage. He also suffers from diabetes, atrial fibrillation, lower back pain, neuropathy, and hypertension and was moved to the federal prison at Terminal Island in California, where there’s a medical unit.

The judge said she already considered his health when she sentenced him in 2016. “He wasn’t a spring chicken then. He’s two years older now,’’ Brown said, adding that it’s the Bureau of Prisons’ responsibility to provide medical care for elderly inmates.

Brown also said the sentencing disparity between Holden and Sharp was warranted. Sharp accepted responsibility early on, pleaded guilty and didn’t go to trial and agreed to assist the government in providing information that would help others avoid falling victim to such scams, Maddux said.

Before deputy federal marshals led Holden out of the courtroom, the judge allowed Holden’s daughter to spend five minutes with him in court after the hearing. His daughter, who lives in Washington state, told the court she hadn’t had a chance to visit with him in California. The judge also recommended that Holden be placed now at the federal prison in Sheridan, which he prefers to be closer to his family.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.