By Libby Cluett
lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com

PALO PINTO – On Friday, Ronald Keith Owens began paying the price for taking millions of dollars from people he talked into investing with and trusting in him.

State District Judge Jerry Ray meted out a sentence of 60 years in state prison for the 72-year-old Mineral Wells man on a charge of first-degree felony theft over $200,000.

Owens had previously pleaded guilty to the state charge, as well as to federal counts of wire fraud and filing a false tax return connected to his so-called Ponzi scheme that authorities said cheated hundreds of people across the United States out of at least $2.6 million dollars.

Owens in December received a 63-month federal prison term and was ordered to report to federal prison authorities this coming week. But after Ray handed down his sentence, set to run concurrent with the federal term, Owens was taken into custody and prepared for transport to Fort Worth to hand him over to federal authorities.

For Owens, he will initially serve both terms concurrently in the federal prison system. If released from federal prison, he would be remanded to Texas prison officials to serve any remaining portion of that term, minus credit for time served.

However, because of his failing health which includes kidney failure, Owens is not expected to outlive his federal sentence.

Judge Ray did not assess a fine on Owens, saying he did not think it would ever be paid. He told Owens he was responsible for a lot of people’s money and “a lot of hurt.”

“You learned how to counsel and talk to people out of their anguish and it seems to me you also learned how to talk them out of their money – and you did that,” said Ray. “You have left in your wake a sea of hurt and heartache.”

“When you steal from people and do it so often that you lose track of zeros, it shows a callousness and disregard, not only for the law, but the good folks you’re taking advantage of.”

“You squandered your right to be free in what time you have left,” Ray added. “I don’t buy into your notion that being sick is a get out of jail-free ticket. We can’t, and I won’t, participate in creating a classification of citizens immune to the law and punishment.”

Ray added that he preferred to have Owens’ “health care costs spread all over the United States” and he would begin serving the federal time.

After the hearing, Owens was taken to Weatherford to have his ankle monitor removed and then sent to the U.S. Marshals in Fort Worth. Defense attorney Cora Moore said Owens would be transferred this week to a federal penitentiary in Fort Devon, Mass., where he would serve his 63-month federal sentence.

During Friday’s sentencing hearing, the defense presented Frances Dobbs as a witness, who said she knew Owens for 30 years. Dobbs said she invested money in Owens’ first program and recalled signing “something that said there was no guarantee,” that this investment was a “high risk” and not to “contribute more than we can lose.”

Dobbs said she and her husband were paid monthly on this investment. When the “deal closed,” she said Owens told them they could take money or roll it into a second investment. “We lost all in the second investment,” she said.

She estimated they lost over $200,000 and received $38,000 out of the first investment program.

“I’m a victim myself,” Dobbs told the judge. “But I’ve been raised [to understand that] I am responsible for what I do.” I made the investment, it didn’t pan out and I lost money.”

Owens’ former pastor Jim Hilton testified to the defendant’s “extreme regret” for not being able to return money. He confirmed that Owens served in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged.

“Everything I know about him makes this very shocking to me,” he said. He said Owens and his wife were “very helping” to others.

Texas State Securities Board attorney Dale Barron called to the stand Dewitt Wood of Weatherford. Wood established that he and his wife lost money through Owens’ investment programs. He said he met Owens through the New Life Fellowship church and attended fellowship meetings conducted in the Owens home.

Wood recalled that soon after he married his wife about 10 years ago, Owens and his wife “approached us with an investment program.” Wood said the Owenses told them “to invest $80,000 and it would return astronomical returns.” He told the court that this came from his wife’s estate.

He explained that for about one year, they “received funds back in the form of credit cards from the Bahamas.” He added that this amounted to approximately $2,000 for about a year, which he said he used to “make land payments.”

“After a period of time, we were told we could start in a second phase,” which Wood said required them to increase their $80,000 investment to $150,000. He added that he understood this program was called “new paper or new money in a Swiss bank account that would multiply itself over time.” To raise funds for this program, he said he sold property in Jack County.

“Owens told me there were problems with the program overseas – the banks were uncooperative and the government had tied the money up,” said Wood, adding he received e-mails daily. “There were always problems.”

He said he knew a lot of other people in this investment program, some from the same church and others.

What Wood later told the Index was “the hardest thing” was when he encouraged his son to invest in the second program and having to tell him about losing his money when his son was serving in the military in Iraq.

“I drew my son into it [with] $40,000 from his wife’s death policy,” Wood said, confirming that his son never got his money back. “He is career military.”

Barron asked Wood if this caused a rift in his relationship with his son. “Yes,” was Wood’s reply.

“When they arrested Owens, my son was in Iraq. It was hard,” he said later to the Index.

Before he was excused, Wood asked if he could say something. He turned to Owens and said, “My wife and I forgive you.”

“We are certainly aware of the great number of dollars lost,” said Moore, adding she hoped the judge “would allow some consideration as to his age and condition.” Moore additionally presented a Dec. 8 letter from Dr. Ira Epstein, a Fort Worth nephrologist who has Owens in dialysis treatment three days a week for his kidney failure. She said Epstein’s letter stated Owens “probably had less than two years to live.”

Barron cited a warning his TSSB supervisor issued to Owens in February 2001, which he said told Owens he was violating the law if he continued in this manner using these bank instruments, which did not exist.

“He was warned by my boss. He didn’t learn from that,” Barron told Ray.

“Mr. Owens’ family and friends will have a hard time in his absence, but Mr. Owens will have a harder time with the time he’s going to serve,” said Moore, adding, “He is remorseful about the choices he made.”

Owens operated an investment business in Mineral Wells known as Executive Investors, Inc. (EII), which was also known as Newlife Trade Group (NTG). Through those companies and individually, Owens solicited money from individuals throughout the U.S. to invest in offshore “bank credit instrument trading,” supposedly located in Nassau, Bahamas, Germany and Switzerland.

These investments, however, did not exist, officials say.

Owens ran his scheme from approximately March 2000 through September 2007. As part of the scheme, he created promotional literature for buying and selling bank credit instruments that fraudulently reflected high investment returns, such as a 30 percent monthly return, with 10 percent of the return paid each month with the remaining 20 percent added to the principal investment and compounded. He also promoted investments in the offshore programs through group leaders who recruited investors and formed joint ventures to make investments.

Owens caused his investors to send funds by wire transfer, and checks mailed to Mineral Wells, “knowing the funds would not be invested as represented to investors. He used the investor funds as ‘Ponzi’ payments to early investors and for personal use,” according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Federal prosecutors say Owens then provided investor account information to a company in Florida, knowing the information was false and would be used to create and mail false account statements to investors. He reportedly required investors to sign settlement and release agreements regarding their fund balances, knowing the information in the agreements was false.

As a result of Owens’ scheme, investors lost a total $2,582,376.79, according to officials.

Owens also admitted he filed a false income tax return in 2003, reporting that he had $107,877 of gross income in 2002 when in fact he had approximately $1,142,322.

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Index Editor David May contributed to this report.