Mineral Wells, Texas Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Defrauding Hundreds of Victims in Investment Scheme
Ronald Keith Owens Agrees to Pay Nearly $2.5 Million Restitution

DALLAS—Ronald Keith Owens, 72, of Mineral Wells, Texas, pled guilty in federal court last week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney to an Information charging offenses related to an investment scheme he ran, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas.

Specifically, Owens pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 23 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. As part of the plea agreement with the government, Owens agreed to pay a total of $2,471,267.31 in restitution to hundreds of victims that are identified in the Victim List, Exhibit A, of the plea agreement. Owens is scheduled to be sentenced on November 5, 2008, by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn.

Ronald Keith 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 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 and 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 e-mails 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 e-mails 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 to represent 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 $2,471,267.31.

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.

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 is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer.  

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