The mistress of a Texas Christian radio show called “The Money Doctor” has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in a Ponzi scheme in which she and her boyfriend stole $31 million from about 200 retirees over a 10-year period.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that 65-year-old Debra Mae Carter worked with Ponzi schemer William Neal “Doc” Gallagher to “scam seniors out of millions of dollars.”
The money-hungry duo would scam their victims, with Gallagher primarily responsible for collecting the money and Carter ensuring their targets didn’t get their funds back.
Gallagher met with listeners of his show, “The Money Doctor,” to talk about “risk-free income” that would guarantee returns of anywhere from 5 percent to nearly 9 percent a year if you invested in securities with him.
He described it as “retirement income that lasts a lifetime.”
Prosecutors named Carter as the mastermind behind a scheme designed to pay for the couple’s lavish retirement benefits. According to KDFW.
“This was hard-earned retirement money that was deposited into her account over and over again,” Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Lori Burnell said. “She’s a plague on society. She’s just a liar. That’s what she does.”
Carter was found to have laundered money primarily through rental properties, land and fake charitable organizations.
Approximately $200,000 worth of gold and silver was seized from her mobile home.
Gallagher was arrested in Dallas County in March 2019 after it was discovered he had received up to $29.2 million from approximately 60 investors between December 2014 and January 2019, and pleaded guilty to theft, money laundering and securities fraud.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for these charges.
The radio host was then indicted in Tarrant County in August 2019 and sentenced to three life sentences plus 30 years in prison in November 2021 for forgery, securing execution by fraud, theft of property and exploitation of the elderly.
After a two-week trial, attended by his ex-spouse, the financier and Gallagher, the jury found Carter guilty of money laundering.
Carter represented himself at the trial, which concluded on July 8, but delays were caused by witnesses not being able to attend and Carter’s brief hospitalization, the district attorney’s office added.
One of Carter’s victims accused his co-conspirators of showing no remorse for their crimes.
“Debbie Carter deserves life in prison,” Brenda Wilkerson said in court. “She ruined so many people’s lives. … It’s despicable.”
Wilkerson, 84, and her late husband, Gary, had invested money they inherited before losing it in a Gallagher & Carter scheme.
Ms. Wilkerson, who married her husband in 1957, was an avid listener of a Christian radio program that featured Dr. Galger and invested $50,000 of her own money in the radio host after an elder at her church did the same.
“Because I read his book, I listened to his show, and I thought everything was amazing,” she told Fox 4 Dallas.
Gary Wilkerson passed away in early 2019, and in March of that year, Brenda learned she had also lost her money.
“I was already under a lot of stress with losing my husband. It was a real shock,” she added.
According to the district attorney, Wilkerson said that if he still had money he could have paid off his mortgage, but that he will now be paying off the debt for the rest of his life.
Carter and Gallagher planned to retire to a large ranch with the money they had stolen.
