North Texas woman gets 10 years for Southlake-based Ponzi scheme

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The former owner of a North Texas title company who stole millions from customers and referred to herself as the “Millennium Mobster” has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A judge in Tarrant County also has ordered 46-year-old Nancy Spinks, also known as Nancy Carroll, to pay $8.6 million in restitution.

Spinks last year pleaded guilty to theft in a plea deal with prosecutors. She tearfully apologized in court Wednesday. Judge George Gallagher said she didn’t need to apologize to him but that her actions “destroyed a lot of lives.”

Spinks owned Millennium Title of Southlake. Prosecutors say it was a Ponzi scheme she used to skim money and bankroll an elaborate lifestyle. She disappeared in August 2016 and was apprehended in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois.