United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

MINERAL WELLS, TEXAS, MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN FIVE YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING HUNDREDS
OF VICTIMS IN INVESTMENT SCHEME

Ronald Keith Owens Also Ordered to Pay Approximately $2.6 Million Restitution

DALLAS — Ronald Keith Owens, 72, of Mineral Wells, Texas, who pled guilty in August to an Information charging offenses related to an investment scheme he ran, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn to 63 months in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. In addition, Judge Lynn ordered that Owens pay a total of $2,582,376.79 in restitution to the hundreds of victims of his crime. In addition, Judge Lynn ordered that once (if) that is paid off, Owens must pay $550,304 to the Internal Revenue Service. He must report to the Bureau of Prisons by January 29, 2009, to begin serving his sentence.

“Mr. Owens’ scheme was particularly insidious as it financially devastated many elderly victims,” said Fort Worth Division Postal Inspector in Charge Randall C. Till. “Postal Inspectors will continue the fight against crooks that use the U.S. Mail to fleece the honest, hard-working citizens of America.”

Owens operated an investment business in Mineral Wells, Texas, known as Executive Investors, Inc. (EII), which was also known as Newlife Trade Group (NTG). Through EII, NTG, 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.

Owens pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. 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% monthly return, with 10% of the return paid each month with the remaining 20% 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, Texas, 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.

To further his scheme he 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 required investors to sign settlement and release agreements regarding their fund balances, knowing the information in the agreements was false.

To keep his scheme going, he created and sent more than 200 lulling emails to investors about his supposed efforts to liquidate investments in foreign bank credit instruments and return principle and interest amounts to investors, well knowing the emails contained false information.

In 2004 and 2005, he requested additional funds from investors to offset expenses incurred during his supposed retrieval of investment money from these foreign banks, knowing the requests contained false information. He continued representing to investors, through September 2007, that their funds were being deposited with the foreign banks, well knowing that the funds had been depleted in 2003, for purposes other than what he had represented to investors.

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

Owens also admitted that 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.

“Investors must be vigilant with their hard earned money and remember that scam artists exist in every walk of life. Ponzi schemes are just another form of theft and we should protect ourselves by being cautious and recognizing that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” said Michael P. Lahey, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Dallas Field Office.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer.

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