Utah man sentenced to prison for investment fraud scheme

NORFOLK, Virginia (AP) — A Utah man has been sentenced to five years in prison for his part in a nationwide investment fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims and led to losses of nearly $30 million, officials said.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Tony Scott Sellers, 62, of West Valley, Utah, and other conspirators made misrepresentations and omitted information over six years to sell highly speculative investments that were sold and controlled by Daryl Bank, among others.

Based on the fake claims, unsuspecting investors cashed out of 401(k) and other retirement accounts to purchase the investments, not knowing that a portion of the funds would be skimmed off the top in so-called fees.

In September, Bank 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, the news release said.

Sellers’ part in the scheme led to losses in excess of $3 million. Most of the victims were at or near retirement age when Sellers and his co-conspirators defrauded them, prosecutors said.