Chris Pettit of San Antonio: Fraud, 50-Year Sentence, Appeal

Christopher John Pettit is a former San Antonio attorney who ran a decades-long fraud out of his law firm, Chris Pettit & Associates, stealing between $20 million and $65 million from clients who had entrusted him with their estates, trusts, and real-estate transactions. A federal judge sentenced him to 50 years in prison in February 2024 after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Two years later, in February 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that guilty plea and sent the case back to the trial court, finding Pettit had been misinformed about the maximum sentence he actually faced.

What Pettit Did

For more than twenty years, Pettit operated what federal prosecutors described as a Ponzi-type scheme from his San Antonio firm. Chris Pettit & Associates employed six to ten lawyers across two offices: one on Rustic Lane for estate planning, another on Huebner Road for personal injury work.¹ The firm handled living trusts, irrevocable trusts, estate planning, investments, real-estate closings, and personal injury cases. Pettit also held himself out as a qualified intermediary for 1031 real-estate exchanges, a role that gave him custody of large sums during property sales.²

Pettit cultivated the image of a trusted family confidant, holding educational seminars and presenting the firm as a one-stop shop for legal and financial needs.¹ According to prosecutors, he was moving client funds into accounts he personally controlled, using money from newer clients to cover obligations to older ones, and spending the proceeds on what the Department of Justice called an “extravagant lifestyle.”² Former employees said Pettit kept exclusive control over the firm’s checkbook.

Some clients found out only when they received account statements for investments that didn’t exist, including bonds issued by nonexistent authorities and stocks the SEC had revoked.³ In one civil case, a court ordered Pettit to pay more than $10 million for misappropriating a trust; in another, he was found to have “knowingly and intentionally” committed theft of over $908,000.¹

How It Came Apart

The scheme collapsed in 2022. On May 24, Pettit moved to surrender his law license to the Supreme Court of Texas, which accepted the resignation on June 6, 2022.⁴ The State Bar had cited professional misconduct based on four grievance complaints. His prior disciplinary history was slim: a public reprimand and an $850 fine in 2012 for failing to supervise a non-lawyer employee.¹

Pettit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, 2022, for himself and the firm. His personal filing listed $27.8 million in assets against $115.2 million in debts; the firm reported no more than $50,000 in assets.¹ Creditors soon filed roughly 200 claims totaling about $259 million, confirming that Pettit had “grossly understated his liabilities.”³

That September, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Gargotta found Pettit in civil contempt and jailed him at the Karnes County Detention Facility. Pettit had violated an order barring him from transferring personal property: he directed his nanny’s family to move furniture and valuables from one of his homes into storage for possible sale, and he arranged for a former employee to ship his business laptop and flash drives to his home in Florida after testifying he didn’t know where the laptop was. A recorded call played in court caught Pettit coaching the nanny’s family on their story, which the judge said looked like witness tampering. On the same recording, Pettit called Gargotta “corrupt.”⁵

Pettit spent three months in jail before Gargotta released him in early December 2022, after he agreed to surrender his $1.8 million Stone Oak home, about $500,000 in retirement accounts, and various life insurance policies to the bankruptcy estate.⁶ On December 7, 2022, a federal grand jury indicted him on five counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering.⁷ He was denied bond and has remained in custody since.⁸

The federal investigation started with a single victim complaint. The Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department was credited with first recognizing the scope of the fraud, and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office referred the matter to the FBI, which led the probe with the Texas State Securities Board and the Texas Department of Public Safety.²

The 50-Year Sentence

On October 5, 2023, Pettit pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the remaining two wire fraud counts.² His plea agreement admitted total victim losses of between $20 million and $65 million.⁹

On February 21, 2024, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia sentenced Pettit, then 56, to 50 years in federal prison.² Garcia called it the “absolute worst white-collar fraud case” he had seen in 30 years on the bench. When Pettit tried to describe his motives as “complicated,” Garcia cut him off: “What’s complicated? You either steal or you don’t steal.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Stephenson told the court the only real explanation was “greed.”¹⁰

Victim Lorraine Steubing addressed the court and said the $65 million figure was “a very small number compared to what he’s done.” She insisted Pettit had not acted alone: “He paid people. He needs to make restitution on listing the names of the people that helped him.” Garcia shared the suspicion, telling Pettit, “I cannot believe that you did this all by yourself.”¹⁰

In December 2024, Garcia ordered Pettit to pay $106.3 million in restitution to 98 former clients. Prosecutors acknowledged in court that collection was unlikely. “We have no reason to believe there is a pot of money hidden anywhere,” Stephenson said. Lawyers for victims said the chance of seeing that money was “an ice cube’s chance in hell.”¹¹

Why the Fifth Circuit Threw Out the Plea

On February 5, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Pettit’s guilty plea and sent the case back to Judge Garcia’s court. The panel ruled that Garcia had “affirmatively misinformed” Pettit about the maximum penalty he faced.¹²

Each of the three wire fraud counts carried a maximum of 20 years, and each of the three money laundering counts carried a maximum of 10 years. Run consecutively, the six counts exposed Pettit to 90 years. At the plea hearing, however, the district court treated the wire fraud counts as a single 20-year block and the money laundering counts as a single 10-year block, telling Pettit the aggregate maximum was 30 years. The plea agreement repeated that error, and the presentence report did not correct it.⁹

The Fifth Circuit found this was a “clear violation” of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(b)(1)(H), which requires a court to inform a defendant of the maximum possible penalty before accepting a guilty plea. The panel concluded there was a “reasonable probability” that a defendant who understood he actually faced 90 years rather than 30 would not have entered the plea, so the error affected Pettit’s substantial rights.⁹ Legal experts quoted in reporting said the ruling returned the criminal case to “square one,” meaning Pettit can now negotiate a new plea agreement or go to trial.¹²

What Victims Can Still Recover

FBI Special Agent in Charge Aaron G. Tapp said Pettit defrauded clients of “millions of dollars, in some cases their life savings.”² Bankruptcy Judge Gargotta described the harm bluntly: “It wasn’t Chris Pettit’s money to begin with. It was the beneficiaries’ money to begin with, and, as a result, the harm is on them. And it’s individualized.”¹³

With little prospect of collecting from Pettit directly, victims have turned to the banks that held his accounts. About 200 former clients sued Wells Fargo, Frost Bank, Texas Partners Bank, American Bank, and Winter Park National Bank in federal court in San Antonio, seeking more than $200 million and alleging the banks knowingly assisted Pettit in breaching his fiduciary duties. That litigation is pending.¹³

Bankruptcy trustee Eric Terry has brought his own actions against several of the same banks. His case against Wells Fargo produced a settlement of more than $1.1 million, which Judge Gargotta approved in January 2025; Wells Fargo did not admit liability.¹⁴ The trustee’s claims against Frost Bank were dismissed with prejudice as time-barred.¹⁵

Pettit’s bankruptcy estate itself has sold off homes, vehicles, and personal property through online auctions, including properties in Alamo Heights listed near $4 million and on Blackhawk Trail listed near $6 million, plus a mansion in Florida.¹⁶¹⁷ Those recoveries fall far short of the roughly $260 million in creditor claims. At a December 2025 hearing, trustee Terry told the court a distribution to creditors was coming but acknowledged “it’ll be a small one.” The case is projected to conclude in 2026; Judge Gargotta is scheduled to retire that April, and any remaining matters would pass to his successor.¹⁸

Where the Case Stands Now

Pettit is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.¹⁹ After the Fifth Circuit’s February 2026 ruling, the criminal case is back before Judge Garcia in San Antonio, where Pettit may negotiate a new plea or proceed to trial.¹² He has also filed notice appealing the evidentiary basis for the $106.3 million restitution order.²⁰ The bankruptcy proceedings remain active, with the trustee finalizing the last pieces of litigation and preparing a creditor distribution that will be modest next to the losses it is meant to repair.¹⁸

1
San Antonio Express-News. Clients Considered San Antonio Lawyer Chris Pettit a Friend
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Former San Antonio Lawyer Sentenced to 50 Years for Wire Fraud, Money Laundering
3
San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Fraud Grossly Understated
4
San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio Lawyer Who Allegedly Looted Client Funds Surrenders Law License
5
San Antonio Express-News. Ex-Lawyer Chris Pettit Is Sent to Jail After Violating Court Order
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Released From Jail
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Former San Antonio Lawyer Christopher John Pettit Indicted for Wire Fraud, Money Laundering
8
MySanAntonio. Chris Pettit San Antonio
9
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. United States v. Pettit, No. 24-50250
10
San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Sentencing Hearing
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Ordered to Pay $106.3 Million in Restitution
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Conviction Set Aside by Appeals Court
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Victims Lawsuit Against Five Banks Allowed to Proceed
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San Antonio Express-News. Wells Fargo Settlement in Pettit Bankruptcies
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vLex. Terry v. Frost Bank
16
The Real Deal. Alamo Heights Home of Disgraced Chris Pettit Asks $4M
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Personal Property Auction
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Yahoo News. Chris Pettit’s Victims See Small Distribution Ahead
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Incarcerated at Leavenworth
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San Antonio Express-News. Chris Pettit Appeal to 5th Circuit