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Kids & Family

PD Man Admits Fraud in $16mil Golf Course Rebuild

Thomas O'Meara admits defrauding investors in a Fresno golf course to be site of PGA tour event.

A Palm Desert man has pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering in a U.S. District Court in San Jose.  

Thomas Joseph O’Meara III, 65, admitted in his plea agreement that he carried out an investment fraud scheme from 2004 to 2007. O’Meara recruited individuals to invest more than $16 million in a 18-hole golf course and gated housing development in Fresno, California, that he named the Running Horse Golf and Country Club.

According to the indictment, O’Meara retained professional golfer Jack Nicklaus’ firm Nicklaus Design to design the Running Horse golf course and convinced the PGA Tour to publically schedule a PGA Tour event at the golf course. O’Meara admitted in the plea agreement that in an effort to recruit investors and secure money for the planned golf course, he lied about Nicklaus Design’s and the PGA Tour’s confidence in the development. O’Meara also admitted that he lied to investors about the progress and financial condition of the development.

The Running Horse Development ultimately failed, investors lost their money, no PGA Tour golf event took place, and the 450 Fresno-area acres on which the golf course and gated community was to have been located remain largely undeveloped.

O’Meara has been on home detention and electronic monitoring, secured by a bond, since his August 3, 2010, arrest.

O’Meara’s sentencing is scheduled for November 14, before United States District Judge Lucy H Koh in San Jose.  O'Meara faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.   He agreed in his plea agreement to pay $7 million in restitution to victims.

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