William Neil “Doc” Gallagher also got a 30-year prison sentence from state District Judge Elizabeth Beach for his August guilty pleas. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
The sentencing came after more than a dozen senior victims testified during a three-hour court hearing about losing anywhere from $50,000 to $600,000 invested in the Gallagher Financial Group. Some said they had to sell their homes, borrow money from their children or take part-time jobs to supplement their Social Security benefits.
“Doc Gallagher is one of the worst offenders I have seen,” said Lori Varnell, chief of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Elder Financial Fraud team.
Gallagher, 80, and his Gallagher Financial Group advertised on Christian radio with the tagline, “See you in church on Sunday.” He promoted his investment business in books, such as “Jesus Christ, Money Master,” and on Christian radio broadcasts.
His story attracted national attention when it was told on the AARP podcast The Perfect Scam. Doc was featured in two recent episodes.
Host Michelle Kosinski called him a “scammer extraordinaire, a smooth, silver-haired and silver-tongued, Scripture-spouting Texas radio show host.” Her reporting showed that Doc spent his time self-promoting and not actually investing.He didn’t invest much, if any, of his clients’ money in legitimate investments. Court records show he used newer investors’ money to pay off earlier investors, a classic Ponzi scheme. The podcast described his greeting when he’d enter someone’s home to pitch his wares: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Gallagher has been behind bars since his March 2019 arrest on similar charges filed in Dallas County. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was indicted in Tarrant County in August 2019.
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