Man receives 7-year sentence for fraudulent biodiesel scheme

In the US, a federal judge has resentenced a 78-year old man for his role in a fraudulent biodiesel scheme after an appeals court dismissed his 2016 sentence, Oregon Live reports.

Jack Holden from Eugene, Oregon, and co-defendant Lloyd Benton Sharp defrauded 12 people who invested in a biofuels project to produce biodiesel in Ghana.

When the project failed, Holden and Sharp bamboozled investors into contributing additional funds to support non-existent projects to transport biodiesel from Argentina to Chile and to build biodiesel refineries in Chile, prosecutors told Oregon Live.

According to the report, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals had vacated Holden’s sentence of seven years and three months as it couldn’t find enough evidence suggesting that Holden was indeed the leader of the fraud and had control over co-conspirators.

US district judge Anna J. Brown however, didn’t alter the original sentence after the new sentencing hearing.

“I believe 87 months was reasonable then and is reasonable now,’’ Brown told Oregon Live.

In August 2016, Brown had originally sentenced Holden after he was convicted of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit both offences following a 12-day trial.