Enforcement Actions Criminal Civil

William Neil “Doc” Gallagher, the self-styled "Money Doctor"who advertised frequently on Christian radio in North Texas, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison on March 27 and ordered to pay $10,386,816 in restitution to the victims of the long-running fraud he operated from his retirement...

Brett Pittsenbargar, an Austin insurance agent who allegedly sold $9.3 million in fraudulent investments, was arrested Feb. 19 to face first-degree felony charges of securities fraud, money laundering, and theft. A Travis County grand jury's Feb. 4 indictment of Pittsenbargar was made public when he...

A federal jury in San Antonio on Feb. 13 found Brian Keith Alfaro guilty of seven counts of mail fraud in connection with defrauding investors in Primera Energy LLC, the oil and gas exploration company he owned. Alfaro's sentencing is scheduled for June 22. The 2018 indictment of Alfaro alleges that...

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Feb. 13 sentenced Charles McAllister, the CEO of Austin-based Bullion Direct Inc., to 10 years in prison and ordered him to pay $16.1 million dollars in restitution to 5,800 victims of his scheme. A jury in U.S. District Court in Austin convicted McAllister on Oct...

James A. Reid of Cedar Park, a former stockbroker, was sentenced to six years deferred adjudication and ordered to pay $93,500 in restitution to investors in his company's short-term investments fund. Reid was sentenced Jan. 16 in the 331st District Court of Travis County. He paid $75,000 of his...

Nathaniel Anthony Brooks Jr. , who pleaded guilty to a fraudulent commodity trading scheme, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison in U.S. District Court in Austin on Dec. 20. Brooks pleaded guilty in October to a charge of monetary transaction in criminally derived property. Brooks...

A U.S. DIstrict Court grand jury in Austin on Dec. 17 indicted Ekeoma Jerry Onyeukwu, a resident of Nigeria who spoofed the Texas State Securities Board website to make it appear individuals who lost money in the worldwide BitConnect cryptocurrency fraud were eligible for partial refunds. The grand...

Sean Patrick Riley of San Antonio was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication after pleading guilty to second-degree securities fraud in the 188th District Court of Gregg County. Riley paid $5,000 in restitution up front in the plea deal and was ordered to pay an additional $48,500 in future...

Mejdi Mahmoud Abousaoui was indicted Nov. 4 by a Fort Bend County grand jury on charges of securities fraud, money laundering, theft, and misapplication of fiduciary property. According to the indictment, Abousaoui raised more than $4 million from at least 70 investors from early 2015 until mid-2018...

A jury in U.S. District Court in Austin on Oct. 4 convicted Charles McAllister, the former CEO and owner of the Austin-based precious metals firm Bullion Direct Inc., of two counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property. McAllister faces up...