12/13/20224
Jailed ex-San Antonio lawyer Chris Pettit will owe $106.3 million in restitution to nearly 100 victims under a court order U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia is expected to sign next week.
At a court hearing Thursday, Garcia said he would adopt federal prosecutors’ recommendation that Pettit pay back 98 former clients who, in some cases, lost their life savings as a result of the massive fraud orchestrated through his law firm for years. The restitution amount each victim is owed is filed under seal with the court.
The judge agreed to the amount despite an objection from Pettit’s court-appointed public defender, Alfredo Villarreal, who argued prosecutors’ calculation of what should be owed “lacks accuracy, certainty (and) precisioness.”
“We object to the court ordering restitution in this matter on the specific grounds that the government has failed to meet its burden to prove that each and every dollar of the restitution award … is justified under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act,” Villarreal said. Garcia overruled the objection.
Pettit, 57, attended the hearing dressed in prison garb and restrained in shackles but did not speak.
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He was a longtime probate, estate planning and personal injury lawyer who pleaded guilty to three counts each of wire fraud and money laundering related to the theft of millions of dollars from his clients.
In February, Garcia sentenced Pettit to 50 years in federal prison — about twice the time recommended by sentencing guidelines.
ettit has filed an appeal of his conviction and sentence but it’s been on hold pending the outcome of the restitution hearing. In an August filing, a lawyer for Pettit said she anticipated he would also appeal the restitution amount.
As part of his plea agreement, Pettit admitted the loss amount was in the range of $20 million to $65 million.
Garcia’s decision to award restitution, though, is largely symbolic. His victims don’t expect Pettit will ever pay any of what he stole.
Attorney David McQuade Leibowitz, who represents about 130 victims suing banks that did business with Pettit, called “truly tragic.”
“My clients have an ice cube’s chance in hell of ever receiving any restitution money,” he said before the hearing.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Stephenson said as much during the hearing.
“I sincerely wish that there was a pot of money hidden somewhere,” he told the judge. “We have no reason to believe there is a pot of money hidden anywhere. Obviously, that is the type of thing we look for in our investigation.”
The lack of funds prompted a question from Garcia.
“Where does one go out and spend $106 million?” he asked the prosecutor.
Stephenson reminded the judge that prosecutors had provided details during the punishment phase of the sentencing of Pettit’s lavish spending, including millions of dollars on real estate. Pettit also collected “very expensive, very fine things” to decorate his house, including a life-size Storm Trooper figure from the “Star Wars” films.
“He was spending money in lavish, kind of over-the-top ridiculous ways,” Stephenson said.
He defended prosecutors’ efforts to accurately calculate victims’ losses, work that included going through bank records for accounts controlled by Pettit or his firm.
After his schemes were exposed in the spring of 2022, Pettit surrendered his law license, shuttered his firm and filed bankruptcy for himself and the firm. His victims have recovered little through bankruptcy proceedings and many now are pinning their hopes of some recovery through litigation with the banks.
Earlier this year, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Gargotta cautioned Pettit’s victims that even though they were pursuing three different tracks to recover their money — restitution, bankruptcy and litigation — they can only get “one recovery.”
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