Daryl Bank, Investment Fraud, Virginia 2024

A former Virginia Beach investment advisor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a nationwide investment fraud scheme that resulted in over $25 million in losses to more than 300 victims, most of whom were elderly.

Daryl Bank, 51, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, ran the investment fraud scheme from approximately January 2012 through July 2017, based in the Tidewater area and Port St. Lucie, and operating across the country.

Bank and his co-conspirators, including his attorney, Billy Seabolt, 56, of Williamsburg, corporate executive Raeann Gibson, 49, of Florida, and salesman Roger Hudspeth, 52, of Chesapeake, deceived hundreds of unsuspecting investors by fraudulently convincing them to invest in companies owned and controlled by Bank.

At Bank’s direction, co-conspirators stole significant portions of investment contributions to fund their criminal enterprise and Bank’s lavish lifestyle. ‘Darryl Bank and Billy Seabolt, along with their co-conspirators, robbed hundreds of elderly victims of their life savings and ruined the financial security many had worked for all their lives,’ said Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office.

Bank’s attorney, Seabolt, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the scheme. ‘Those who engage in deceptive securities practices needs to know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable,’ said Daniel A. Adame, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division, of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The scheme was uncovered after Bank was barred from the securities industry in 2010 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Undeterred, Bank created an investment company called Dominion Private Client Group (Dominion) and continued to sell unregistered securities on his own and through insurance salesmen across the country.

The sentences imposed in this case reflect the enormous scale and scope of this securities fraud scheme and send a strong message that those who commit these devastating financial crimes will face significant consequences in our courts.

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