Former Dominion Investment Advisors LLC owner Roger Odell Hudspeth II pleaded guilty to one count of investment adviser fraud and one count of conducting unlawful monetary transactions, the Department of Justice announced.
The DOJ report states that from 2012 to 2015, Hudspeth sold an associate's investments—which were high risk and illiquid—to his wealth management clients, many of whom were elderly or retired. For instance, Hudspeth conducted seminars offering ways to maximize Social Security benefits.
Meanwhile, the associate whose investments Hudspeth sold to clients had previously been banned by FINRA for "fraudulent activities."
The findings state that Hudspeth steered investors into selecting highly risky, speculative, and illiquid products by making misrepresentations and omissions.
In all, DOJ wrote that Hudspeth's clients lost over $6 million as a result of the fraudulent scheme, while Hudspeth received over $700,000 in ill-gotten gains, which he used, in part, for personal reasons, including a $20,000 downpayment to purchase a Range Rover luxury SUV.
According to his BrokerCheck report, Hudspeth's previous FINRA-firm associations include stints at Royal Alliance Associates, Next Financial Group, BI Investments, and Capitol Securities Management. The Virginia State Corporation Commission barred Hudspeth in 2016 for offering and selling unregistered securities, imposing sanctions including disgorgement, rescission, restitution, and revocation of his license.
A pending 2015 customer dispute alleges that Hudspeth sold unregistered securities and made material fraudulent misrepresentations to "lure [clients] into illegitimate and illegal investments."
Dominion is included in Hudspeth's file as an outside business activity, and carries three associated names: Dominion Insurance Brokerage, Dominion Investments, and Dominion Risk Management.
If you have invested with former RAA, Next Financial, and Dominion Investment representative Roger Odell Hudspeth, or with any broker or financial adviser whose material fraudulent representations to invest in an illiquid high-risk product unsuitable for your investment objectives has proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.