CHICAGO (AP) - A former financial advisor from Chicago has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for swindling investors out of more than $5 million and using it for plane tickets, luxury hotel stays and other indulgences.
Darayl Davis, 48, was sentenced Monday by a federal judge after pleading guilty earlier this year to one count of mail fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois said.
Prosecutors said Davis targeted fellow church members, friends and former clients in his financial scheme. Between 2003 to 2018, he defrauded more than 25 people - many of them retirees who gave him all their savings - out of more than $5.1 million, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“Davis knew these people trusted him and deliberately exploited that trust,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Catizone and Philip N. Fluhr argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
Davis told his victims they would be protected from any losses and would receive fixed interest payments if they invested with his firms, Washington, D.C.-based Financial Assurance Corp. and Los Angeles-based Affluent Advisory Group LLC.
But in reality he spent the money on himself, using it for club memberships, theater tickets, plane tickets, rental cars, luxury hotel stays and to rent an eight-bedroom Los Angeles mansion, prosecutors said.
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