Radio's "Money Doctor" Gets Three Life Sentences Behind Bars

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, November 3, 2021 | 10:13am CT

William Neil Gallagher

Texas radio host William Neil Gallagher stated his life passion was "to help people retire safe, early and happy." Instead, the self-proclaimed "Money Doctor" has been sentenced to three life sentences for bilking 192 people out of at least $23 million. Prosecutors said the 80-year-old had kept his Ponzi scheme afloat for nearly 10 years by taking money from mostly elderly people who believed it would be invested in a "risk-free" fund that would see 5% to 8% returns. What he actually did was to dump the money into one account and use it to pay off earlier investors in "a classic Ponzi scheme," per the suit filed against him by attorney Cort Thomas.

Thomas was appointed by a federal judge to recover the losses after the SEC brought charges against Gallagher in March 2019. The SEC said nearly all the funds were used up, and that Gallagher produced fake account statements displaying false balances to keep the ruse going. Gallagher presented himself as a longtime, savvy investor with a PhD in philosophy who advertised on Christian radio with the line, "see you in church on Sunday." The Washington Post quotes him as saying in one radio episode, "You've got to be sure you totally trust that financial planner you're working with."

Gallagher was handed an additional 30-year sentence for charges of forgery against the elderly and exploitation of the elderly. As the head of the Tarrant County District Attorney's Elder Financial Fraud team put it, Gallagher "is one of the worst offenders I have seen."