The mistress of Texas Christian radio host “The Money Doctor” was sentenced to life in prison for her role in a Ponzi scheme that saw the two lovers steal $31 million from nearly 200 retirees over 10 years.
Debra Mae Carter, 65, “bilked senior citizens out of millions of dollars” alongside Ponzi schemer William Neil “Doc” Gallagher, the Tarrant County District Attorney announced Tuesday.
The money-lusting duo swindled their victims with Gallagher’s role primarily focusing on receiving the money while Carter made sure their targets could not recover the funds.
Gallagher got the listeners of his show “The Money Doctor” to meet him, where he discussed what he called a risk-free income, guaranteeing annual returns of 5% to nearly 9% if they invested in securities with him.
He described it as a “retirement income you’ll never outlive.”
Prosecutors named Carter the mastermind behind the operation which sought to pay for the couple’s lavish retirement, according to KDFW.
“These were hard-earned retirement (dollars) which … got put into her account over and over again,” Tarrant County Assistant DA Lori Varnell said. “She is a blight on society. She’s just a liar. That’s what she does.”
Carter was found to have laundered the money primarily through rental homes, land and fake charities.
About $200,000 in gold and silver was seized from her travel trailer.
Gallagher was arrested in Dallas County in March 2019 and pleaded guilty to theft, money laundering and securities fraud after being found to have received up to $29.2 million from about 60 investors from December 2014 to January 2019.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for those charges.
The radio host was then indicted in Tarrant County in August 2019, when he was sentenced to three life sentences plus 30 years in prison in Nov. 2021 on charges including forgery, securing the execution of a document by deception, theft of property, and exploitation of the elderly.
Following a two-week trial, which featured an ex-spouse, investors and Gallagher, a jury found Carter guilty of money laundering.
Carter represented herself in the trial, which ended on July 8 and was marred by delays because of unavailable witnesses and Carter briefly checking herself into a hospital, the district attorney’s office added.
One of Carter’s victims called out the conspirator for showing no remorse for her crimes.
“Debbie Carter deserves life in prison,” Brenda Wilkerson said in court. “She has ruined so many lives. … It’s despicable.”
Wilkerson, 84, and her late husband, Gary, had invested the money they inherited before they lost it to Gallagher and Carter’s scheme.
Wilkerson, who married her husband in 1957, was an avid listener to a Christian Radio Program that featured Gallgher “the Doc” and invested $50,000 of her money with the radio host after an elder at the church did the same thing.
“Because I had read his book and had listened to the program and thought it sounded all great,” she recalled to Fox 4 Dallas.
Gary Wilkerson died in early 2019 before Brenda learned in March of that year that she also lost her money.
“I was already under such tremendous stress from losing my husband. That just really was a punch in the gut,” she added.
Wilkerson says if she still had the money she could have paid off her mortgage, but now she will be paying off debt for the rest of her life, according to district attorney.
Carter and Gallagher had planned on retiring to a huge ranch together with the money they stole.
