The former comptroller of a bankrupt San Antonio frac sand company linked to state Sen. Carlos Uresti is the latest company official charged in an alleged scheme to defraud investors.

Laura Jacobs is the third FourWinds Logistics official charged in an information with a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony.

Jacobs emailed an investor a spreadsheet “which falsely showed that the investor’s investment went to purchase fracking sand,” according to the charging document filed Tuesday. Chris K. Gober, Jacobs’ lawyer, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The document didn’t detail how the investors’ money was spent, but investors have alleged in court papers that FourWinds CEO Stan Bates wasted their money on personal expenses, expensive gifts, exotic car rentals and lavish vacations. Bates has disputed the allegations.

FourWinds — which traded frac sand, used in fracking to extract oil and gas from shale rock — filed for bankruptcy in August 2014. Creditors’ claims in the bankruptcy top $14 million. The San Antonio Express-News reported on FourWinds’ demise in August.

Uresti provided legal services for FourWinds and served as its outside general counsel for four or five months in 2014. He received FourWinds shares, as well as a $40,000 loans from the company that he initially failed to disclose in his state financial disclosures. He also was paid a $27,000 commission on Harlingen investor Denise Cantu’s $900,000 investment in a joint venture with FourWinds.

Cantu ended up losing about $800,000. Ron Smeberg, an attorney for investor Richard Thum, during a December court hearing called FourWinds a Ponzi scheme because he said some of Cantu’s money went to pay another investor.

Uresti previously has said he has been contacted by the FBI “as a witness” in an investigation of FourWinds and Bates.

According to people familiar with the probe, Uresti is the target of a grand jury investigation weighing possible public corruption charges related to his various roles at FourWinds.

The criminal case against Jacobs follows similar actions brought against Eric Nelson, FourWinds’ e-commerce and marketing director, and company co-owner Shannon Smith.

Nelson pleaded guilty Nov. 16 to using photo software to alter a bank statement to make it appear that the company had more money than it actually did. He faces up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and as much as a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on Feb. 6.

Smith is expected to plead guilty on Dec. 5, according to court records. An unnamed co-conspirator is alleged to have transferred or wired from FourWinds’ bank accounts a total of $74,0000 to Smith in 2014 and 2015. Another $10,000 allegedly was transferred to a bank account controlled by Smith’s wife.

Jacobs has said she served as FourWinds comptroller from May 2014 through October 2015.

During a January court proceeding in Bates’ personal bankruptcy, Nelson said he was asked by Bates to change the balance shown on a Chase bank statement. The document showed the company had more than $18.8 million in the bank in May 2014, San Antonio businessman Richard Thum, who invested with FourWinds, told the Express-News earlier this year. Subpoenaed bank records in Bates’ bankruptcy, however, show FourWinds never had more than $1.4 million at any one time during that month.

Thum later contacted the FBI about FourWinds’ activities, sparking an investigation.

Jacobs also testified in the bankruptcy proceeding, saying she prepared a FourWinds balance sheet showing it had more than $17 million in receivables, which are amounts owed to the business, as of June 30, 2014.

But when asked if FourWinds actually had that much in receivables at that time, Jacobs wasn’t certain.

“I can’t answer that question without seeing further information,” she said, according to a court transcript. “It’s possible there was an invoice” for that much.

A profit and loss statement also presented as evidence in the court proceeding showed the company generated $17.4 million in sales and nearly $2.7 million in gross profit in the first half of 2014.

Jacobs said she paid Bates’ personal bills, including car payments, with FourWinds money and recorded them as “owner’s draws.”

Assistant U.S. attorneys Joseph Blackwell and Mark Roomberg are prosecuting the FourWinds’ cases.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD