What You Need to Know
- William Neil “Doc” Gallagher was also a radio personality known as the Money Doctor.
- He advertised on Christian radio.
- In addition to three life sentences in prison, the judge slapped him with an additional 30 years.
A former Texas advisor and radio personality known as the “Money Doctor” was sentenced Monday to three lifetimes in prison, plus another 30 years for good measure, by Judge Elizabeth Beach in Criminal District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, for running a Ponzi scheme that bilked seniors out of $32 million, according to Sharen Wilson, Tarrant County district attorney.
William Neil “Doc” Gallagher, 80, was indicted in Tarrant County in August 2019 and pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 this year to charges stemming from the scam that he ran in Hurst, Texas.
The three charges were securing the execution of a document by deception for an amount greater than $200,000, theft of property over $300,000 and misapplication of fiduciary property or property of financial institution of more than $300,000.
Beach slapped him with 10 more years each on three counts: one count of forgery against seniors and two counts of exploitation of seniors.
The Gallagher Financial Group had advertised on Christian radio with the tag line “See you in church on Sunday.” Gallagher also promoted his investment business in books, including “Jesus Christ, Money Master.”
In 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action against Gallagher to shut down what was, at the time, an alleged $19.6 million Ponzi scheme targeting older investors’ retirement funds. The SEC also charged Gallagher Financial Group and W. Neil Gallagher, Ph.D. Agency Inc., two companies that Gallagher used to conduct the scheme.
In 2020, he pleaded guilty to similar charges in Dallas County and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.