FORT SMITH — Judy Burton told a federal judge that William Jackson Moates Jr. promised her dying husband that he would take care of Burton’s family through investments they made with him.
But Burton told Western Arkansas Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III on Wednesday that Moates used the Burtons’ invested savings to pay off his own home mortgage, renovate his home and rent office space. Moates used the money to pay thousands of dollars on his credit card, bought jewelry for his family, took cruises and vacations, and paid personal income taxes and household bills, Burton said.
Many of the 25 victims of his four-year investment scheme packed the federal courtroom Wednesday to see Holmes sentence Moates to 12½ years in prison and order him to pay more than $5.7 million in restitution. Holmes allowed Moates to remain free until he reports to federal prison Aug. 14.
Moates, 50, was charged in a 25-count indictment. He pleaded guilty in October to six charges of mail and wire fraud, money laundering, theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, and theft or embezzlement from an employee benefit plan.
Wearing a gray plaid jacket and bluejeans, Moates never looked back at the 70 people sitting in the audience or as victims read impact statements on the podium.
At one point while addressing the judge, Moates’ attorney, Rex Chronister of Fort Smith, turned toward the crowd and said that Moates offered his apology.
Moates’ family members asked for leniency, saying Moates suffered from a rare disease and if not for the pain medication he took he would not have committed the crimes for which he was charged.
Holmes said he received letters from family members who maintained that Moates was innocent and his prosecution was the result of conspiracies against him.
Moates was accused of stealing amounts ranging from $10,000 to $1 million from 2011-14.
A presentence document filed by Chronister said Moates suffered from Dercum’s disease, characterized by the formation of multiple painful growths called lipomas, and has had 17 surgeries over the years to remove them. Moates had another surgery scheduled for today.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Jennen submitted a document from the Bureau of Prisons during court Wednesday that said it could take care of Moates’ condition.
People in the audience seemed to take little comfort from Chronister’s apology or the family’s plea for lenience. After court, one man shouted at Moates, “I’ll be the first person you see when you get out.” A woman yelled curses at him.
“This was one of the most reprehensible examples of conduct in a white-collar crime that I have had,” Holmes said before passing sentence.
Moates used religion to gain people’s trust, Holmes said, preyed upon people who had little means who ended up with nothing, ran a Ponzi scheme to fleece investors and, two weeks after being arrested by the FBI, sought the protection of the federal bankruptcy court.
Holmes described Moates’ conduct as “astounding.”
Victims told similar stories as they read their impact statements. They put their trust in Moates because he was a friend or a family member or a fellow churchgoer, and he took their life savings, leaving them financially ruined.
“We were lied to and hurt so deeply by someone we regarded as family,” members of the Graber family wrote in a letter read in court.
Andrea Satchwell told Holmes that she and her husband had a son who was in a “death spiral” from drug addiction, and they needed money to send him to an expensive rehab clinic. When she called Moates to arrange to get the money, she said, he could hear the desperation in her voice, but the money was gone.
She said she felt that when Moates walked into church, he saw the people as sitting ducks.
Travis Plummer said Moates stole nearly $1 million that affects four generations of his family. The family had invested money from the sale of his grandfather’s farm after he died. The investment was supposed to benefit future generations.
Dean Satchwell said he learned about the theft of his family’s life savings the same day he was fired from his job.
Moates “sat right beside us listening to our hopes and dreams,” Jennen read in a letter from another victim.
In a government sentencing recommendation, Jennen said Moates’ main motivation in stealing the victims’ money came down to pride. He said Moates decided to conceal the theft of an investor’s money by a Texas man with whom Moates previously worked because revealing the theft would have damaged his reputation as a “financial wizard.”
Holmes referred to that moment in his remarks and said Moates had the opportunity to take one path and reveal the theft to the investor, but he took the other path that led to his cheating investors he recruited.