Federal judge says Slaton grifter's lack of remorse requires higher prison sentence

J. Nicholas Bryant stood before U.S. District Judge James Hendrix last week and read out a statement, apologizing for the months he spent swindling people out of millions of dollars to fund a lifestyle replete with private jets, yachts, limousines, expensive hotels, Champagne and steak dinners.

The 26-year-old Slaton native told the court that the last 15 months he's spent in jail showed him how devastating his actions were and that he was ready to pay his debt to society.

"I hurt so many people trying to be someone I'm not," he said.

Bryant, who is being held at the Bailey County Jail, on Thursday said he hoped to come out of prison a better man and father.

However, Hendrix told Bryant the statement he read in court fell short of showing remorse in light of the evidence that came after he entered his guilty plea.

"I wish I can believe everything you just said," Hendrix told Bryant. "It's very hard for me to do so ... You have lost the benefit of the doubt from everyone because of your choices."

He sentenced Bryant to 14 years in prison - six years shy of the maximum 20-year prison sentence he faced after he pleaded guilty in November to a count of wire fraud. He also ordered Bryant to pay $1.19 million in restitution.

His charge stems from an investigation into an 18-month-long spree of fraud, in which he lied to get money, lavish trips and an expensive home and vehicles, leaving in his wake more than 50 people and small businesses who waited for payment that never came.

Elaborate schemes

Prosecutor Anne Howe asked the court for a prison sentence that reflected the gravity of Bryant's actions and the number of people he harmed. She said Bryant's punishment should also send a message to other people thinking about engaging in similar crimes.

She told the court during Thursday's sentencing hearing that there was nothing particularly special about the way Bryant executed his fraud schemes.

"He repeated wire fraud over and over again," she said.

What was notable in Bryant's case was the number of people he swindled. Howe listed 56 individuals and entities whose services Bryant stole from. During the hearing, Bryant waived a reading of a list of his victims.

Prosecutors believe Bryant intended to defraud his victims out of $3.5 million. However, the actual losses from his schemes amounted to about $1.19 million.

Howe said Bryant preyed on small businesses who struggled during the economic slump of the pandemic and were excited that Bryant's business would sustain them.

"They knew they were able to keep some employees," she said.

However, that excitement dissolved into despair when they learned Bryant's promises and bank accounts were empty.

"It was quite a hit," Howe said.

Howe told the court Bryant exploited his victims' confidence in online payment systems to trick them into thinking payment was coming.

Bryant's attorney David Sloan argued that at the heart of his client's fraud was a sincere intention to start an oil company by reopening an oil well on his uncle's property in Levelland.

"I think he was and he was hoping the well would pay off and everybody would get rich," he said.

However, Sloan said his client's alcoholism, compounded by insecurity and immaturity, derailed his client's plans, and he got caught up in a lavish lifestyle as he sought to impress potential investors.

Howe said there was no evidence that Bryant intended to start a legitimate oil business.

Bryant's uncle never knew of a plan to re-open the oil well and even kicked out the workers hired by one of the investors Bryant tricked.

Instead, the evidence showed Bryant spent at least 18 months lying and swindling his way into a lavish lifestyle that included extravagant trips such as sailing on a 90-foot yacht in Miami complimented with steak dinners with Champagne and vodka.

"He just wanted money," she said. "He did it for the purposes of ostentation, attention and ego."

In that oil well scheme, Bryant posed as a facilitator between a fraudulent oil company he created and reached out to potential investors, selling them a stake of an oil well.

Howe said Bryant worked in the oil industry and used his experience to gain the trust of his victims.

"He preyed upon collogues, friends, former employers in the oil and gas industry," she told the court. "An industry vital to this area, built upon trust, reputation. Business is often conducted on a handshake. The defendant knew that, and he knew how to talk the talk."

In some cases, Bryant represented himself as the son of an oil tycoon to further his schemes.

Court documents state he managed to fool one investor into fronting about $150,000 into the bogus venture.

According to court documents, in November 2021, Bryant contacted a private charter flight company to arrange a "demo flight," saying he was interested in buying the same type of airplane the company had.

The demo flight, which included a stop in Houston with a final destination in Miami, cost $38,000 — $33,000 for the flight and $5,000 for alcohol and a limousine service. The return flight would cost another $38,000.

Bryant arranged to pay for the flight via Quickbooks Payments, an online payment service. Phone records revealed that when the company asked Bryant to confirm payment for the first half of the flight through text messages, he replied with "paid," and exploited the delay in the Quickbooks Payments service, which automatically notifies both parties that a payment is made when a payment process is initiated, knowing it would take several days to process.

Three days later, the flight company was notified that Bryant's payments failed.

Bryant texted the company, promising to pay for the flights with bank wire transfers. However, the charter flight grounded the plane in Dallas a day later, and Bryant stopped communicating with the company, which never received the $76,000 he owed them.

The investigation showed he preyed on at least 17 charter flight companies and was able to trick nine of them into providing flights stocked with alcohol. He even convinced his limousine driver to pay for expensive hotel rooms, in exchange for an empty promise to repay him.

In another scheme, Bryant convinced a home builder to build him a home with a swimming pool and workshop. The builder invested about $980,000 before realizing that Bryant was unable to pay for the work. He also defrauded auto dealerships and acquired five vehicles worth more than $543,000.

A question of remorse

Bryant was initially arrested in December 2021 on state felony charges of theft of service and fraudulent transfer of a motor vehicle. A year later, he agreed to waive a federal indictment and plead guilty to the wire fraud charge.

Defendants in federal court are entitled to what's referred to as an acceptance of responsibility reduction in their sentence if they enter guilty pleas well ahead of their trial.

However, judges have the discretion to reject or apply the reduction after evaluating whether defendants are truly remorseful for their actions.

In Bryant's case, Hendrix found the defendant had no remorse despite his statements in court.

During the sentencing hearing, Hendrix told Bryant he listened to a jail phone call between him and a friend during which they laughed about his crimes and the money he took from his victims. In the phone call, Bryant also told his friend to reach out to a true crime writer, hoping to convince him to write a book about his crimes so he could profit off them, telling her, "I'm going to get paid for this shit."

"You were proud of your crimes and not remorseful for them," he told Bryant.

Sloan argued that his client should get the acceptance of responsibility reduction since Bryant has pleaded guilty to his crimes. He said his client's statements in the phone calls with reporters and his friends were distasteful, but his client never denied what he did.

Sloan also referred to his client's allocution in court as proof of Bryant's remorse.

"He's admitted the crime ... As far as we know he's withdrawn from criminal activity," he said. "There's no indication he hasn't ... Certainly no one is saying Mr. Bryant has a record for being honest."

However, he said any profit his client earns for selling the rights to his story could go towards paying his restitution.

Against Sloan's advice, Bryant spoke to a reporter with the Daily Beast for a story about his case. In the story, Bryant admitted to his crimes but said his case was wilder than that of other fraudsters such as Anna Delvey [Sorokin] of the "Inventing Anna" Netflix series or Frank Abagnale, whose story was the basis of the moive "Catch Me If You Can" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Sloan argued that his client was goaded by the reporter into bragging about his crimes for the story.

"There was a lot of ego stroking going on, on the part of that reporter," he told the court. "I think what they indicate is immaturity and attention seeking, which runs all through this case."

He said he saw a bit of poetic justice in the way he said the reporter misinterpreted her intentions to speak with his client.

"Because that's what he did to his victims," Sloan said.

Meanwhile, Howe said Bryant's actions betrayed the words of remorse he spoke in court.

"Despite that devastation, this defendant is not contrite," she said.

She told the court that Bryant has continued to reach out to the media.

"That is concerning, because it indicates he has no intention of changing his conduct," she said.

She said Bryant's criminal history clearly showed a lack of respect for the law, since he was under three separate terms of probation while he committed his fraud schemes.

At the start of Thursday's hearing, a sentencing guideline provided to the court by the probation office recommended a range between 63 and 78 months in prison.

However, Hendrix agreed with a probation officer's note that the sentencing guideline didn't fully reflect the gravity of Bryant's criminal history, which started when he was 17 years old. His charges included three related convictions for theft at the state level and a domestic violence charge that involved the mother of Bryant's child.

"You tormented your son's mother," Hendrix told Bryant.

Bryant's new guideline range was bumped up to 87 to 108 months in prison, though Hendrix believed an upward variance was appropriate. Ultimately, Hendrix tacked on another 60 months to the upper end of the range, which is what he handed down to Bryant.

"Your fraud impacted numerous people across different industries," Hendrix told Bryant. "These are hard-working, salt of the Earth people. You were not defrauding a big company. You defrauded the people in our community who were just trying to make it as a small business, pay the bills and give people jobs that allowed them to put food on their table. You did not hesitate. The only thing that stopped you was being caught ... You took what you wanted, just for your own fun."

He told Bryant that while he had a right to speak to the press, his statement showed he had a dogged determination to revel in his crimes.

"All you've clearly demonstrated is that you're proud," he said. "You played a role. You're playing a role today. I hope you prove me wrong. But what's before me right now, you have not demonstrated an acceptance of responsibility."

Bryant also faces related charges in state courts in Lubbock and Midland counties and in Parker County, Wyoming.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: J Nicholas Bryant sentenced to 14 years in federal wire fraud case