2018
Ronald Terry Dunn of Haltom City, a former registered securities agent, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison on Feb. 22 in Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 2. Judge Wayne Salvant also ordered Dunn to pay restitution of $683,731.
Dunn pleaded guilty to one first-degree felony charge of theft and three first-degree felony charges of fraudulent sale of securities.
Dunn is a former registered securities agent who was fired by Pruco Securities LLC in 2013. In regulatory filings, Pruco said Dunn impropertly borrowed money from a client, deposited the funds into his personal bank account, and did not repay the funds with interest as he agreed to do.
From 2009 through 2014, Dunn raised more than $1 million from investors in the Fort Worth area, most of them 65 years of age and older.
Dunn convinced some of the investors to liquidate annuities they held with Pruco Securities and to invest the proceeds with him. Instead of investing the money, Dunn used some of the funds to pay Ponzi payments to earlier investors and to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from ATMs at hotels and casinos in Oklahoma and Las Vegas.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in 2015 permanently barred Dunn from acting as a registered securities agent.