The video delves into the fraudulent activities of "Doc Gallagher," a financial advisor who exploited the trust of many Christians and retirees. Presented as a devout man of faith offering financial security, Gallagher was able to convince numerous individuals through captivating radio appearances and personal gestures. However, beneath his charismatic exterior, Gallagher operated a ponzi scheme, unraveling the lives of many clients who entrusted him with their savings.

The narrative captures personal testimonies from victims and investigators, detailing the emotional and financial turmoil inflicted by Gallagher. His scheme involved making empty promises of high returns while utilizing new investors' money to pay off previous ones. As suspicions arose, investigative efforts exposed the depths of Gallagher's deceit, culminating in his arrest and the uncovering of his financial misconduct.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. ponzi scheme [ˈpɒnzi skiːm] - (noun) - A type of financial fraud where returns to earlier investors are paid using the capital from newer investors rather than profit from legitimate business activities. - Synonyms: (fraudulent investment, scam, con)

It jumped off the page at me that you could see that there was a ponzi scheme taking place.

2. gregarious [ɡrɪˈɡeəriəs] - (adjective) - Describing someone who is sociable, friendly, and enjoys spending time with others. - Synonyms: (sociable, outgoing, extroverted)

He’s a very bubbly guy, you know, very forward, gregarious, and presents himself as, you know, a really friendly guy that’s concerned about you.

3. adept [əˈdɛpt] - (adjective) - Highly skilled or proficient at something. - Synonyms: (skillful, proficient, expert)

Gallagher had an extremely outgoing personality. He was very adept at making friends with people in various communities.

4. charismatic [ˌkærɪzˈmætɪk] - (adjective) - Possessing a special charm or appeal that draws people towards them. - Synonyms: (charming, magnetic, captivating)

However, beneath his charismatic exterior, Gallagher operated a ponzi scheme.

5. ostensible [ɒˈstɛnsɪb(ə)l] - (adjective) - Stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so. - Synonyms: (apparent, seeming, supposed)

A ponzi scheme, generally speaking, is an ostensible investment plan that offers very high rewards with little or no risk.

6. prosecution [ˌprɒsɪˈkjuːʃən] - (noun) - The act of conducting legal proceedings against someone in respect of a criminal charge. - Synonyms: (legal action, trial, legal proceedings)

We investigated insurance, insurance related crimes for the criminal prosecution.

7. reputable [ˈrɛpjʊtəbl] - (adjective) - Having a good reputation, well thought of, and trustworthy. - Synonyms: (trustworthy, respectable, esteemed)

He portrayed himself as a reputable financial advisor, using his charisma and faith-based outreach to lure in clients.

8. laundering [ˈlɔːndərɪŋ] - (verb) - The process of making large amounts of money generated by a criminal activity appear to have come from a legitimate source. - Synonyms: (cleansing, sanitizing, purifying)

You had to analyze those records, you see that they’re laundering or moving money to another bank.

9. seminar [ˈsɛmɪˌnɑːr] - (noun) - A conference or other meeting for discussion or training. - Synonyms: (conference, workshop, symposium)

I was really suspicious of these seminars and these banquet rooms in these hotels.

10. retrospectively [ˌrɛtrəˈspɛktɪvli] - (adverb) - Looking back on or dealing with past events or situations. - Synonyms: (reevaluatively, historically, reflectively)

Gallagher clearly believed in what he was saying, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

The Texas Preacher Who Used God to Steal | Bloomberg Investigates

She gave me a call, said, you know, there's something fishy going on. You know, I'm like a cat with a mouth. I just, you know, shake it and shake it. I was ready to get it, so I did. I've always called Texas the lone scam state because this, 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 their 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.

Fort Worth is pretty much a neighborly town. Good people, church-going people, community-minded people who take care of their neighborhoods as best they can. So the city of Hearst 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 advisor, everybody thinks that he was a doctor of finance. The money doctor was his name. Doctor 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 broker. See, I used to be a stock broker. The reason they call their brokers, you give your money to them and you end up brokered. My first impression of hearing Doc Gallagher on the radio was how slick he was. He sounded like a regular radio host, not like a financial advisor buying time. He had a really strong, melodic, humorous voice and came across very well on the radio.

Doctor 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 requires 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 church-going, good-hearted, kind, fair, honest Christianity. 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.

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. You had 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. Everybody ought to try it. I've always been a helper, been a giver, have 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 fella named Doc Gallagher. This is Doc Gallagher. Do you know the number one question to ask? Hey, financial planner, if I didn't have any money with you, would you still care about me? That's the number one question. James, he 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 of one of the reasons that we were wanting to have the money more accessible. It 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 might 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 there was nothing bad. It was just all positive about how he was the money doctor. I called his office and said, could you personally have one of your representatives meet us? I guess the next day, Doc called me back, and it rains. He was going to come up himself. So, you know, that was kind of impressive. You know, he thinks enough for 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 cared. The first time that Doctor 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 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, Washington, probably, like, an 8% return on your investment and no downside. What could be wrong with 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 or 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's a man. I worked specifically for the fraud unit. We investigated insurance, insurance-related crimes for the criminal prosecution.

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 there's an offense or a crime, but something's odd. The grandson told me that Doc Gallagher was previously the financial advisor 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 100,000, there was 300,000. There was 80,000 in single deposits.

It jumped off the page at me that you could see that there was a ponzi scheme taking 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. 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, you know, that was kind of one of my motivations. 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 and 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 get them 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 went. My assistant got there before me, and she started running the tape recorder. 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 rate of 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. Don't support.

Think seriously. What are the risks going forward for you to want something that's going to be very safe? At the seminar, they gave me a booklet with some of the background from him, but also a sheet of paper that showed, I 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 and the job. There's usually a puzzle that needs to be solved. You got to get all the pieces to really to 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 ask him. I said, I see you gave him this check.

What contract did he give you that shows where your money is? And 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, he's a man of God and he takes care of my money, and he wouldn't do anything wrong. And after, you know, interviewing ten or twelve individuals, I said, I don't have anybody angry. 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. And, you know, 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. Long after that, when we'd meet with him initially, he was 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 us 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, and I'm going to tell them everything I know and everything that I suspect. I will never forget the day I 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 preacher where you can get a better than average return without stock market risk or interest rate fluctuations. 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, it was kind of a little bit of shock that he was the suspect because he was so well known in the 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, how deep was this? Were there any other individuals who were involved in this ponzi scheme? 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. 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 Hearst. 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 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 Gallagher's businesses, properties, his bank statements, his checking account. They're looking into all his financial stuff. Doc Gallagher was a financial advisor 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 that's how they worked it, so he could invest in kind of an unknown, unexpected 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 seven years. So anything past that seven-year mark, we were really unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Yeah. One victim that I spent a lot of time with, she was very sick, had a disease you die from, and 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 because 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.

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. The money that those individuals had given to Doc Gallagher was paid out to other individuals. There was not money going to investments, as Doctor Gallagher had said, running Ponzi schemes and committing fraud, it's an addictive behavior. But we did want to move relatively quickly, because obviously, we see that there's a harm taking place to individuals.

We did surveillance that day to make sure Doc was going to be in his office at pre St. Line Road, where he had Gallagher Financial Group. We staked 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 locksmiths. 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.

They’re 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. 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 is life force in Hearst 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 called 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 were 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 were the gold and silver bars. But now the safe's empty.

It's a huge letdown for anybody in law enforcement when you're 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.

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 ask them this question. If I didn't have any money with you, would you still care about me? I believe that. 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 here. I really appreciate the victims in all these cases that stepped forward. Yeah, always. Yep, 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? Yeah. Don't make me cry. I still feel bad for these people. You know, I'm like a cat with a mouth. I just, you know, shake it and shake it.

I was ready to get it, and so I did. I think we were able to get back a bit 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.

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