2008
Ronald Keith Owens of Mineral Wells, TX, was sentenced December 17, 2008, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, Cause No. 3-08CR-243-M, after previously pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Owens sold investment contracts in New Life Trading Group and Executive Investors Joint Venture, representing that funds would be used in a prime bank trading company overseas. No funds were ever invested in any off-shore investment program. Instead Owens used them to pay investors a purported return on their investments and to pay his own business and personal expenses. Owens was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution to both his victims and the IRS in the amount of $3,132,680.79. Owens was further sentenced January 23, 2009, in the 29th Judicial District Court of Palo Pinto Co., TX, in Cause No. 13609 to serve 60 years in state prison.