{"id":446740,"date":"2026-09-24T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446740\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:10:08","slug":"wife-friend-ask-judge-for-leniency-ahead-of-lubbock-fraud-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446740\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife, friend ask judge for leniency ahead of Lubbock fraud sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Attorneys for Joshua Allen have filed a motion asking a federal judge to release him on bond until sentencing, according to new court filings in the Ferrum Capital investment fraud case.<\/p>\n

Allen and Michael Cox, both of Lubbock, were convicted last month on all four felony counts for running a fraud scheme through their company, Ferrum Capital. A federal jury found the two men solicited hundreds of investors, promising safe, secure returns, then used much of that money to pay earlier investors and themselves.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered both men taken into custody immediately after the verdict. Both are due back in court Dec. 10 to be sentenced.<\/p>\n

View our previous coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s motion cites family circumstances<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s attorneys argue he is not a flight risk, saying he has surrendered his passport and complied with every court order so far. The filing says Allen is the primary caregiver for his minor child and needs time to arrange care and supervision and help prepare for sentencing.<\/p>\n

Attached to the motion is a sworn declaration from Allen\u2019s wife, Chanda Allen. She writes she was diagnosed with cancer one week before her husband\u2019s trial. She says that between her surgery and their children starting school, the family could not make it to San Antonio for the trial. Chanda Allen says that her family never got to say goodbye to Allen before he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

In her declaration, Chanda Allen writes: \u201cI humbly ask this court to release my husband so that I can get him the mental health care he needs and that our family can get our affairs in order, preparing for life without him present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friend writes letter on Cox\u2019s behalf<\/p>\n

Cox has not filed a motion of his own, but the court file now includes a letter from a longtime friend writing the judge directly on his behalf. Joel Pratt of Frisco says he has known Cox for 36 years, since they met as resident assistants at Texas Tech. Pratt writes that Cox became a youth minister and later officiated Pratt\u2019s wedding and his son\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Pratt asks the judge to \u201callow Mike to post bond and spend his last few months at home before sentencing,\u201d writing: \u201cBecause of the support of this family and his faith, I cannot imagine Mike being a flight risk or considering suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third defendant to be sentenced later in December<\/p>\n

The Texas State Securities Board, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation helped build the case against Allen and Cox. A third defendant, former San Antonio investment adviser Brooklynn Chandler Willy, pleaded guilty in March to 10 federal felony counts in the same scheme.<\/p>\n

Willy is set to be sentenced Dec. 14, four days after Allen and Cox. She faces up to 20 years in prison on each of eight fraud-related counts, plus up to 10 more years for money laundering. She also faces a mandatory minimum of two additional years for aggravated identity theft, time she would have to serve on top of any other sentence.<\/p>\n

A judge has not yet ruled on Allen\u2019s request for release. Allen and Cox are due back in court Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Attorneys for Joshua Allen have filed a motion asking a federal judge to release…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[117922,7337,120288,117919,61328,31067,117925,319,25995,168,170,169,140648,117923,69867,17983,120287],"class_list":["post-446740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-brooklynn-chandler-willy","tag-federal","tag-ferrum","tag-ferrum-capital","tag-fred-biery","tag-josh-allen","tag-joshua-allen","tag-kcbd","tag-kidwell","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-michael-cox","tag-mike-cox","tag-ponzi-scheme","tag-shaley","tag-testing-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}