Lee's Summit Firm Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering, Must Pay $370,000 to Victims

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., company pleaded guilty in federal court today to engaging in money laundering by conducting financial transactions with funds derived from a wire fraud scheme.

D&D Advisors, LLC, located in Lee’s Summit and represented in court by manager David Vorbeck, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to money laundering.

Beginning in 2002, D&D Advisors served as manager for several LLCs that were created by Dean McBride, a financial planner and licensed insurance agent, to manage life settlement investments.

Three client investors are cited as victims in today’s plea agreement. They entered into investment transactions in which they provided a total of $370,000, which they understood to be secured by two life insurance policies, each having a face death benefit amount of $500,000. They loaned money to Dean McBride and his company, Cowboy Financial Advisors, LLC, with the principal to be repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the two insurance policies or the proceeds from the death benefits of the two insurance policies. However, none of the victims ever received any proceeds.

The specific act of wire fraud admitted in today’s plea agreement involves one of the companies managed by D&D Advisors. The company, Philley Insurance, LLC, sold one of the insurance policies that had been used to guarantee the three investments. Philley Insurance sold the policy to Milestone, an investment company, for $95,000. Philley Insurance made fraudulent claims in its contract with Milestone, which led Milestone to believe that no other entity or person had been promised proceeds of the death benefits and that no other entity or person had a security interest in the policy. However, Philley Insurance knew when it entered into the contract with Milestone that several other investment clients had been promised proceeds from the policy or security interests in the policy. Milestone wired $95,000 to the bank account of D&D Advisors; the other client investors were never paid what they had been promised.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, D&D Advisors must pay $370,000 in restitution to its victims. D&D Advisors must surrender all governmental licenses and file a notice of dissolution within seven days of the sentencing hearing, which has not yet been scheduled. D&D Advisors may conduct only those activities necessary to wind up its affairs, then must file articles of termination.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roseann A. Ketchmark. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.