Doc Gallagher: The Ponzi Scheme Behind a Trustworthy Facade

Doc Gallagher deceived trusting clients in a Ponzi scheme, exploiting their faith while stealing millions.

### The Rise and Fall of "The Money Doctor": A Ponzi Scheme Unraveled
* 👨‍⚖️  Dr. Neil "Doc" Gallagher, a prominent North Texas financial planner, was arrested for running a **fraudulent investment scheme totaling millions of dollars**.
* 📻  Gallagher, known as "The Money Doctor," advertised on Christian talk radio and presented himself as a **devout Christian financial advisor**.
* 💰  Clients were promised **high returns with no market risk**, with investments in a secret fund that turned out to be a **Ponzi scheme**.
* 🔍  Detective Steve Richardson, working for the Fraud Unit, received a tip about **suspicious activity** related to Gallagher's financial practices.
* 🔒  The scheme unraveled when a 90-year-old client with dementia was found to have **unauthorized withdrawals** from her annuity.
* 🚔  The investigation involved multiple agencies, including the SEC and local law enforcement, and revealed **tens of millions of dollars in stolen funds**.
* 😢  Victims, many of whom were elderly and lost their **life savings**, were devastated by the betrayal.
* ⚖️  Gallagher was ultimately convicted and sentenced to **25 years in prison, with little hope of parole**.

she gave me a call, said, uh, you know, there's something fishy going on. I, you know, I'm like a cat with a mouse. I just, you know, shake it and shake it. I was ready to get it, so I [Music] did. I've always called Texas the lone scam State because this is a really easy place to rip people off. Doc Gallagher, the man on your side, and friends do not let their friends take that money anywhere else. I'm going to tell them everything I know and everything that I suspect. It jumped off the page at me that you could see that there was a Ponzi scheme taking place. The number one question to ask is if I didn't have any money with you, would you still care about me? He was advertising on Christian talk radio. God bless you, and I will see you at the top. You know, he just portrayed himself to be a Christian man, so I totally trusted him. Gallagher clearly believed in what he was saying despite criminal wrongs that he had done, pain that he inflicted.

on various people. The victims had the life sentence, not the suspect. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Fort Worth is pretty much a neighborly town. They have good people, churchgoing people, community-minded people who take care of their neighborhoods as best they [Music] can. So, the city of Hurst is a small community. It's a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It's a real friendly and people-know-each-other community. The good Lord has made us to give unconditional love and to accept unconditional love. You've got to be sure you totally trust that financial planner you're working with. People knew Doc Gallagher if they listened to AM radio or Christian radio stations because he bought time on both of those stations to advertise being a financial adviser. Everybody thinks that he was a doctor of Finance. The money doctor was his name, Dr. Gallagher. What does it mean to be independent? Independent means I work with and for my client. He would give financial advice but also aggressively advertise the Gallagher

Financial Group. One of the things he really sought to do was distinguish himself and his company from what he would refer to as big brokers. See, I used to be a stockbroker. The reason they call them brokers, you give your money to them, and you end up broker. My first impression of hearing Dr. Gallagher on the radio was how slick he was. He sounded like a regular radio host, not like a financial advisor or buying time. He had a really strong, melodic, humorous voice and came across very well on the radio. Dr. Neil Gallagher is a premier true American with integrity in all his pursuits. Gallagher had an extremely outgoing personality. He was very adept at making friends with people in various communities in and around Fort Worth, especially various Christian congregations and senior centers. Freedom required is education and empowerment, and I educate and empower clients, less government, more personal responsibility, and with the help of God, a better world. He did invoke the name Jesus in just about everything he did. He even wrote a book called Jesus Christ Money.

Master and he talked about God all the time, and he talked about faith, and he really made people believe that he was one of them when it came to being a churchgoing, good-hearted, kind, fair, honest Christian. Faith in the future delivers power in the present. That's not a cheap and flippant promise, but it's true. Faith in the future delivers power in the present. God bless you, and I will see you at the top. [Music] Being a Christian is the most important thing to me. James and I, we met at church. My brother and he were friends, and I fell in love with him the first time I saw him. Never had a date, just got married. If you have your family, but you have God, and if he's not in the mix, then it's not going to work as well. But we've kept him in our mix for 51 years, and it's worked well. So, everybody ought to try [Music] it. I've always been a helper, been a giver. I've had a lot of trust in people.

So I became a family nurse practitioner. I was an engineer, petroleum engineer. When I was driving, commuting back and forth to work, I kept hearing these advertisements from this fellow named Doc Gallagher. This is Doc Gallagher. Do you know the number one question to ask a financial planner? If I didn't have any money with you, would you still care about me? That's the number one question. Jamesy came home from work and he said he'd been listening to the radio. Doc Gallagher wanted to help everybody have the best retirement that you could have, the best life that you could. I mean, he's a saver and I'm a spender, so I wanted him to be in charge. One of the reasons that we were wanting to have the money more accessible was primarily just to have those funds ready so we could use them if we had an emergency come up. You know, James had already had cancer. I didn't know. I have to pay for a funeral. You know, who knows? I think you always need to be

ready the nation's money doctor, Doc Gallagher. 8% on a tax-deferred account, 10% on an income account, and 15% on a growth account with no market risk. I did look him up online, but you know there was nothing bad. There was just all positive about how he was the money doctor. I called his office and said, Could you possibly have one of your representatives meet us, I guess? The next day, Doc called me back and arranged he was going to come up himself. So, you know, that was kind of impressive. You know, he thanks enough his clients to come up personally to do it. I made a little list here of some of the things that Doc Gallagher uses as tools to win your love and affection. And one of the things he did was he would show up at your house on your birthday with flowers. If he knew you liked a certain author, he would bring you a copy of that author's book. He would give you gift cards. He would invite you to dances at big hotels. But mostly, he

[Music] cared the first time that Dr. Gallagher, Doc Gallagher, came to our home. He preferred to be called Doc rather than his name. He came in and, you know, over to the dining room table and sat down, and I went and got James and said, Your financial planner's here. He's a very bubbly guy, you know, very gregarious, forward, gregarious, and presents himself as, you know, a really friendly guy that's concerned about you. And he started presenting to us what a wonderful opportunity this was. His presentation was probably like an 8% return on your investment and no downside. What could be wrong with [Music] that? We decided to go ahead and invest with him. We pretty much took all our savings. The total was around 750,000. We were getting monthly checks. We were not having to ask for them. They just showed up on a certain day of the month. We were very happy. Gallagher's customers absolutely loved him. Some of Gallagher's clients were so pleased with him that they

agreed to go on camera on his behalf and sing his praises in testimonials. Well, regardless of how much, sure how little you have, he still takes the time to see you, talk to you, and consult with you. We went with Gallagher and took his suggestions, and so far, we're very well pleased. Yeah, he's our he a man. I worked specifically for the Fraud Unit. We investigated insurance-related crimes for the criminal prosecution [Music]. Working for the Fraud Unit, obviously, you develop relationships with the private sector and individuals that work for insurance companies. And so, I had a specific relationship with this investigator, and she gave me a call, said, You know, there's something fishy going on. Well, Doris was 90-plus years old and had dementia, and her grandson is power of attorney. The investigator told Richardson that she had received a number of requests to make early withdrawals on that policy, which would have triggered pretty significant early repayment penalties that Doris would have had to foot the

bill for she said you know I don't know if that there's an offense or a crime but something's odd. The grandson told me that Doc Gallagher was previously the financial adviser for the family but that they had separated from him and they did not know why he would be surrendering the annuity and did not have authorization to do it. Steve Richardson agreed that the circumstances that had been described to him were quite suspicious and his office opened an investigative file on Gallagher. When I looked at the first two months worth of bank records there was a 100,000 there was 300,000 there was 880,000 in single deposits. It jumped off the page at me that you could see that there was a Ponzi scheme taking [Music] place. A Ponzi scheme generally speaking is an ostensible investment plan that offers very high rewards with little or no risk. The Ponzi schemer simply collects money from would-be investors and it never moves into any actual investment and if and when investors ask

for payments or dividends. The Ponzi schemer pays them out in money that they've received from subsequent investors in the scheme. I mean, Ponzi schemes. I mean, there's a challenge there and, uh, you know, that was kind of one of my motivations. [Music] I've always called Texas the lone scam State. I work for the Dallas Morning News as the Watchdog columnist. Well, the Watchdog works to expose bad practices in business and government, and so I write about 30 or 40 different topics a year, twice a week, and try and help people avoid scams and learn how to deal with them once they get scammed. Unfortunately, there are times when a professional can abuse that trust. I was looking for a story for the newspaper about someone that might be up to no good. I'm really suspicious of these seminars in these banquet rooms in these hotels because I just think that's a really strange way to pick up clients where they bring in people and try and him to invest in something that makes no

sense. So when I got the postcard from Doc Gallagher to come to the convention center to hear his speech, I thought, okay, this will be a nice way to spend a Tuesday night. So I [Music] went. My assistant got there before me, and she started running the tape recorder. Young lady glad in this seminar. Doc Gallagher talked about what's wrong with Social Security, and he said that you can't really count on it, and that it's not fair to beneficiaries and surviving spouses, and that there were other ways to invest money and get a greater return, and take that Social Security money and put it into a fund that he was trying to sell. When you retire, you're unemployed for the next 25 years, though it's important to think seriously about what are the risks going forward for you who want something that's going to be stable. Okay, first at the seminar, they gave me a booklet with some of the background from him, but also a sheet of paper that showed that had the pictures of him with

all the famous people, including the governor of Texas. I knew these people had not endorsed his program. When I left that seminar with Doc, I knew something was off, but I just didn't know what it was yet. I didn't have any victims coming forward to tell me, Hey, he's ripping me off. I like to catch the bad guy. Catching the bad guy was the fun in the job. There's usually a puzzle that needs to be solved. You got to get all the pieces to really prove it, you know, beyond a reasonable doubt. I did a little background, basically figured out who were these people that were giving Gallagher all of this money, and I went and knocked on their door and I'd asked him. I said, I see you gave him this check. What contract did he give you that shows where your money is? Most of them didn't have anything. A couple of them had just a piece of paper. They all included in their statements at some point, um, that he's a man of God and he takes care

of my money, and he wouldn't do anything wrong. After interviewing 10 or 12 individuals, I said, I don't have anybody angry. [Music] I stubbed my toe, fell, and broke my back, and had to quit nursing. When she broke her back, we had to greatly increase our withdrawals from Doc, you know, every month. When we questioned what our balance was, you know, it never changed, it never went down, which after a few months certainly didn't make sense because we had significantly increased our withdrawals. Something's not right here. After that, when we'd meet with him, he would initially be very compassionate, concerned, and now he turns into a defensive and aggressive James. And I both felt apprehensive just because of the way he was acting. His personality had completely changed, talking down to us and accusing us of trying to blackmail him. And we were already starting to feel like he could have bumped off. And so we are both licensed to carry, and so we took our concealed carry with us and

James brought it into the building just because we feared for our lives. We knew talked about at that time that hey this is kind of like smells like a Ponzi scheme. I told James I said he can hunt me down if he wants to but I'm still going to go to the police. I'm going to tell them everything I know and everything that I [Music] suspect. I will never forget the day I've met them. We did most of the interview there table and Lobby. James and Carol said that the person that they were working with was Doc Gallagher. I knew of him as a Christian a preacher. Well you can get a better than average return without stock market risk or interest rate fluctuation. God bless you and I will see you at the top. I knew he had a Financial Group. I knew that he'd been around quite a while so actually I it was kind of a little bit of shock that he was the suspect because he was so well known in the [Music] area. They felt like their life was

destroyed. They were out a lot of money. This fraud kind of excites me. I mean, you hate it for the victims, but that was my forte. I loved helping these people. So, I immediately called Richardson when I found out I had my first angry complaint involved Gallagher. And I'm ashamed to say it, but I was excited. I wanted to know, you know, how deep was this? Were there any, you know, other individuals you were involved in the Ponzi scheme? [Music] Detective Richardson called us first, and we went over everything on the phone, and I drove up there the next day. When I met with James and Carol, I was very impressed. Carol had a binder and had organized communications, all the documents that she'd received from Gallagher. He told me, he said, You're right to be suspicious. We've been looking at Doc Gallagher for a long time, but we haven't found anybody who's willing to speak out against him. And I said, I am. I said I would be willing to do whatever it takes to shut this guy.

down you know at first I didn't really know where this was going to go. Of course, this blossomed into hundreds of victims very quickly. These people are heartbroken. In this case, they were very heartbroken. It's hard to explain how many different lives were destroyed. Victims came to Hurst. I would interview each one in the interview room. Their paperwork all looked the same. Didn't make logical sense to me. And some of the documents that had been furnished. They showed me letterhead where it was just typed on there. Something like 20% invested in annuities. 20% invested in stocks. 20% this. It wasn't any standard legitimate looking investment [Music] statement. You had to analyze those records. You see that they're laundering or moving money to another bank. Well, you got to send a subpoena to that bank. We had the feds involved. We had Dallas involved. And then Tarrant County was involved. They're looking into all Doc Gor's businesses, properties, his bank statements, his checking account. They're

looking into all his financial stuff. Doc Gagher was a financial adviser who lost his license in 1999 to sell securities, and after that, he could only sell insurance. But the people in his office had licenses, so they could sell for him, and uh, that's how they worked it. So he could invest in kind of an unknown, unexplainable secret fund that he was running. The investigators poured over these records for a long time and figured out that tens of millions of dollars were stolen. So the Ponzi scheme had been going on for several years. Banks are, I believe, they're only required to keep their bank records for five years, so anything past that seven-year mark, we were really unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt. Yeah, one victim that I spent a lot of time with, she was very sick, had a disease you die from, and um, she lost $675,000, and her quote to me was, I don't think I want to live anymore, and he's killed me psychologically. She was typical, I mean, she would just all of a

sudden in the middle of the day start crying 'cause they all of a sudden had to live on Social Security, and that's all they had - $675,000. And he knew that she was sick, and he didn't care. He took her money anyway. [Music] We had a lot of evidence against him, but I had documented three different checks that had been deposited into Doc Gallagher's account. You could clearly see that all of the money that those individuals had given to Doc Gallagher was paid out to other individuals. There was not money going to investments as Dr. Gallagher had said, running Ponzi schemes and committing fraud. It's an addictive behavior. We did want to move relatively quickly, um, because obviously we see that there's a harm taking place to individuals. We did surveillance that day to find, make sure Doc was going to be in his office at Precinct Line Road, where he had Gallagher Financial Group. We stake out the office for a little while, and when he returned to his

office. The SEC went in and did their part. They seized the office. They brought their own locksmith. They changed the locks. They booted everybody out. And so when he walked down, the SEC asked him, Do you have any more cash or credit cards on you? He said, No. I said, You're under arrest for theft from the elderly over $300,000. The uniformed officers had placed him in handcuffs and searched him and found a large quantity of cash that he had not given to the SEC. He wasn't even still being honest at that point. He looked kind of beat down. I think he knew the gig was up. A prominent North Texas financial planner is facing serious federal charges tonight. Federal prosecutors accusing him of running a fraudulent investment scheme totaling millions of dollars. If you feel like you're a victim, prosecutors say you should file a complaint. I think I was dancing in the kitchen going yes, yes, yes. You know, I was just thrilled that he had finally been caught. I just didn't want

him doing this to anybody else. More victims reaching out to investigators this week after William the money doctor Gallagher was arrested. Jason Allen's life force in Hurst now. And Jason, one man told you that he turned over tens of thousands just weeks ago. Yeah, he cashed out an IRA to invest with Gallagher here. And Ken, he told me that that probably should have been a red flag that Gallagher wanted cash. Something that documents show had been disappearing here for years. During our investigation, we learned that Doc Gallagher had what I call a police officer call stash house. There were old mattresses, stacks of books, there were all manner of detritus that he appeared to have acquired over the course of many years. When they got in there, they found the safe. Most people would keep their safe at their main office, so that'd be a flag to me as a police officer. We expecting a big payload? I mean, we're talking millions of dollars. The investigators, they're excited thinking we're going to build recover.

money they suspected that there might be hidden money, gold, and silver bars. When they got in there, they found imprints that made them believe that this is where the gold and silver bars. But now the safe's empty. It's a huge letdown for anybody in law enforcement when you're [Music] there. You got 25 years in Dallas. People are still not happy. They think, you know, he needed more. They called us from the DA's office saying that they were going to charge him also. I mean, I was elated. I was just like, yes, let's get him, and let's get him good. And they did. There's no opportunity for him to get out now, as far as I know. [Music] I went to see Gallagher where he's imprisoned in the town of Navasota, which is about 200 miles south of Fort Worth. Gallagher had never spoken with the Press since the time of his arrest, so naturally, I was interested to see what he would have to say. Well, Chris, what a pleasure. Pleasure

to meet you. Likewise, I was curious to see how Gallagher would analyze his own appeal, how he came off to other people. There was a way that he could break that down in a philosophical or an emotional way, or if he would talk about a more calculating approach. What do you think made you so magnetic to people over the radio and in your seminars? Very good, Chris, because I said, If you have an interview with a financial person, you asked him this question: 'If I didn't have any money with you, would you still care about me?' That was, and I believe that, yeah. So, most clients were shocked by that, but they realized that I cared about them. Gallagher clearly believed in what he was saying. He continued to believe that he had earnestly cared about people despite all of the evidence to the contrary. I had a lot of requests because I was coming famous. This is the way I looked at it. I borrowed money from client accounts to help meet those urgent needs with the intent from the very beginning of paying it back rapidly.

which I was doing, so people came to trust me. Now I realized later on I abused that trust. As you know, that's the reason I'm [Music] here. I really appreciate the victims in all these cases that stepped forward. Yeah, always. Yeah, always and forever. And so I really want these stories to be about my victims and what they went through and not about me. That's it, your emotion. No, don't make me c. I still feel bad for these people. I, you know, I'm like a cat with a mouse. I just, you know, shake it and shake it. I was ready to get it, and uh, so I did. I think we were able to get back about $400,000 of the 750. I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Everybody listen, you know, this is a bad deal that happened to us, not knowing originally that it was happening to, you know, so many other people. And you just need to be careful what you're doing out there, and please be careful.

The Texas Preacher Who Used God to Steal | Bloomberg Investigates

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The Manipulative Tactics of Doc Gallagher

Doc Gallagher, a financial advisor in Texas, used his charm and Christian image to build trust with clients while running a Ponzi scheme.

He aggressively advertised his services on Christian talk radio, portraying himself as a "money doctor" and distinguishing his company from big brokers.

Gallagher's outgoing personality and community involvement helped him make friends and gain influence, but his actions ultimately inflicted pain on numerous victims.

The Impact of Faith and Financial Planning

The speaker emphasizes the importance of faith in God and its role in their family's success over 51 years.

They share how they became involved with Doc Gallagher, a financial planner, who offered valuable advice and support for their financial needs.

Doc Gallagher's personal approach and thoughtful gestures helped build strong relationships with his clients.

Doc Gallagher, a charismatic financial planner, convinced a couple to invest $750,000 with him, promising high returns and no risk.

His clients were so pleased that they provided testimonials praising him.

However, an investigator noticed suspicious activities, including early withdrawal requests and large deposits, leading to the discovery of a Ponzi scheme.

The speaker, a watchdog columnist for the Dallas Morning News, aims to expose bad practices in business and government, particularly focusing on scams.

They attended a seminar by Doc Gallagher, who was promoting questionable investment strategies and claiming to offer better returns than Social Security.

After conducting background research and speaking to Gallagher's clients, the speaker discovered that many of them had no proper contracts or documentation for their investments, raising red flags about Gallagher's legitimacy.

Suspicions and Investigations into Doc Gallagher

A couple's financial struggles after a back injury led to increased withdrawals from their advisor, Doc Gallagher, whose defensive behavior raised their suspicions.

They feared for their safety and suspected a Ponzi scheme, prompting them to take concealed carry weapons to meetings.

After meeting with a detective and organizing documentation, they offered to help investigate Gallagher, who had a well-known reputation in the area.

A financial adviser's illegal activities led to the destruction of hundreds of victims' lives, with tens of millions of dollars stolen over several years.

The adviser, who lost his license to sell securities, used his office staff to continue running a secret fund.

Investigators gathered evidence and conducted surveillance to take action against him, but the harm to the victims was already done, with some losing their life savings.

Arrest of North Texas Financial Planner for Fraud

A North Texas financial planner, William Gallagher, has been arrested by the SEC for running a fraudulent investment scheme totaling over $300,000 from elderly victims.

Despite his initial denial, he was found with a large amount of cash during his arrest.

Investigators discovered a stash house with old mattresses and books, and while they expected to find hidden money and valuables, the safe was ultimately empty, leading to disappointment.

Gallagher's Magnetic Appeal and Its Consequences

Gallagher's charm stemmed from his genuine care for clients, which he believed was evident in his actions.

He borrowed money from client accounts to meet urgent needs, intending to pay them back quickly, which initially built trust.

However, he later realized he abused that trust and expressed remorse for the victims, emphasizing the importance of their stories over his own.