Criminal Case
According to court records and evidence presented at trial in the Virginia case, from about 2011 through 2017, Alcorn and Smith were part of an investment fraud conspiracy that operated out of Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and other locations across the country.
Their co-conspirators were: Maerki, 78, and his wife Norma Jean Coffin, 60, of Arizona; Daryl Bank, 51, of Florida (also a defendant in the SEC case); insurance salesman Tony Sellers, 62, of Idaho; insurance salesman Tom Barnett, 69, of California; attorney Billy Seabolt, 56, of Williamsburg; Raeann Gibson, 49, of Florida; and Roger Hudspeth, 51, of Suffolk.
The defendants convinced their victims to invest in or send money to companies owned and controlled by Alcorn, Bank and Maerki. Alcorn and others then misappropriated major chunks of the investment funds to pay for their criminal enterprise and lavish lifestyles, as well as to pay enormous commissions to Smith and other salesmen, according to court documents and the Justice Department.
Smith began selling the fraudulent investments in 2011 for Alcorn, Maerki and Bank. The conspirators used material misrepresentations to sell their illiquid, highly speculative investment vehicles that were then used as vehicles for fraud.
Based on those fraudulent misrepresentations, their victims cashed out of 401(k) and other retirement accounts to invest without knowing that Alcorn, Bank and Maerki were immediately…
