William Logsdon (KMID screenshots)
A 55-year-old teacher and youth lacrosse coach in Texas will spend nearly a decade behind bars for using his status within the community to hoodwink associates, friends, and even family out of more than $2 million as part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme.
William Logsdon on Thursday was ordered to serve a sentence of nine years in federal prison after a jury in June found him guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud, authorities announced.
In a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, prosecutors said that Logsdon “used the trust he had built with community members during his time as a lacrosse coach and teacher in the Midland area, and even the trust he had established with members of his own family, to convince them to ‘invest’ in a Ponzi scheme.”
Logsdon conducted the scheme with his mother-in-law and co-defendant, Jamie Thompson, who previously worked as a geologist in the oil and gas industry. Thompson previously pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to five years in federal prison plus three years of supervised release.
According to prosecutors, Thompson and Logsdon enticed their victims to give them money, falsely claiming they were using the funds to buy “royalty interests” in a series of oil, gas, and mineral projects across Texas and New Mexico.
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“The royalty interests were allegedly being purchased through various entities, including an entity called the National Royalty Group, or NRG,” the release states. “In actuality, the National Royalty Group did not exist, and rather than purchasing royalty interests, Thompson and Logsdon used the money to primarily pay for personal expenses, as well as to advance the Ponzi scheme by providing some ‘distributions’ back to earlier’ investors.””
Authorities say Logsdon and Thompson fraudulently obtained more than $2.1 million in “investments” from more than 20 individuals, with Logsdon “being responsible for a subset of those victims and losses.”
“The individuals that perpetrated this scheme demonstrated extreme greed and disregard for their victims, many of whom were friends, colleagues and even family members,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “In doing so, they harmed the lives and livelihoods of those they claimed to care about.”
Logsdon and his wife, Tammie Logsdon, started the now-shuttered Bulldog Lacrosse Club in Midland, Texas, in 2015. The endeavor was an immediate success, according to a report from Midland ABC affiliate KMID. The team, comprised of student-athletes from various school districts in the area, traveled across the country and participated in tournaments against teams and players from multiple states.
Federal prosecutors noted that the Midland Police Department played an instrumental role in bringing Logsdon and Thompson to justice.
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