by BRAD ROLLINS
A Dripping Springs man charged with stealing more than $200,000 from a 93-year-old woman who thought she was investing in oil and gas wells may have had other victims, investigators say.
Robbie Dale Walker, 53, was arrested June 29 by the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and charged with theft over $200,000, a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years in prison.
In July 2009, Walker asked the woman, his mother’s best friend, for a $100,000 investment to go toward developing a North Dakota petroleum field, Deputy Angelo Floiran said in an affidavit used to secure arrest warrants. In October 2010, the woman allegedly allowed Walker to use a certificate of deposit she owned at a local bank as collateral on a $100,000 loan, investigators say.
But the victim never received the 15 percent annual return she was promised on the investment and, instead, Walker used the money for purchases at match.com, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Co., Best Buy and other establishments, Floiran said. When Walker defaulted on the loan, the woman lost more than $216,000.
Walker’s company, RD Walker Resources, had been inactive since 2003, documents filed with the Secretary of State indicate.
Investigators believe more victims, either in Central Texas or Houston, might emerge.
“The concern in this case is that you frequently have a situation where once you find one victim, the question is how many more are out there. I’ve had cases where you started out with one complaint and found thousands across the country based on the initial inquiry. It will require additional investigation to be determined,” said Joe Rotunda, the enforcement director for the Texas State Securities Board which helped the sheriff’s office investigate the Walker case along with the U.S. Secret Service.
In announcing the arrest, investigators described Walker’s alleged fraud as a “Ponzi scheme,” which, by definition, would involve more than one victim. A Ponzi scheme is a fraud in which the first investors are paid from money invested by later investors.
