Former Texas, NFL kicker sentenced for investment scam

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former Texas All-American and NFL kicker and punter Russell Erxleben was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in federal prison for running an illegal investment scam that netted $2 million.

Prosecutors said Erxleben scammed investors from 2005 to 2009 with fraudulent deals that promoted dealing in post-World War I German government bonds and a work of art purportedly by French painter Paul Gauguin.

He also received three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution.

It will be Erxleben’s second stint in federal prison. He was sentenced in 1999 to seven years for a scam that robbed investors of $36 million.

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Erxleben, 57, holds the Texas record for longest field goal at 67 yards. He was a first-round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints in 1979.