Trial begins for Daryl Bank, charged in $25 million fraud scheme

The trial for a former Virginia Beach investment company executive charged with cheating hundreds of investors out of about $25 million began this week in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Daryl Bank — the former managing partner for Dominion Investment Group and a former host of the nationally syndicated radio show “Getting Your Financial House in Order” — faces several fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges.

His trial began Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and is expected to last several weeks. Attorney Billy Seabolt, who represented Bank while he was being investigated by Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, also is a defendant in the case.

Bank is charged with operating an investment fraud scheme from January 2012 through July 2017 in the Hampton Roads area and across the country, according to court records. His financial services company, Dominion Investment Group, initially was based in Virginia Beach but later moved to Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The victims of the scheme were mostly people at, or near, retirement age who were persuaded to invest in companies owned and controlled by Bank, according to prosecutors. The money was used to fund Bank’s lavish lifestyle and the criminal enterprise, court documents allege.

Numerous shell companies were created under the scheme and investment funds were laundered through multiple accounts, the documents claim.

Raeann Gibson, the former chief operating officer for Dominion Investment, pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme in 2019. She was later sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay millions in restitution to the victims. Gibson is expected to testify during the trial.

According to a news release issued at the time of her sentencing, Gibson routinely wired funds to pay for Bank’s $100,000 monthly American Express bills and, in one instance, facilitated his purchase of an eight-carat diamond ring for his wife.

Bank, who co-wrote the book “SuccessOnomics, is being represented by Virginia Beach attorney James Broccoletti. Seabolt is represented by Norfolk attorney Emily Munn.