On Oct. 2, Brian Ray Dinning, who received his law degree in 1990 from Regent University and practiced law in Hampton Roads for a number of years, was given a prison sentence in U.S. District Court in Norfolk of 12 years and 6 months.
The sentence surpassed advisory guidelines and also the recommendation of prosecutors, who had asked for at least seven years and three months for Dinning, who ran a Ponzi scheme that bilked about three dozen investors of more than $2.27 million.
U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson said he found the recommendations "entirely too low," based on the fraud's complexity; its length in years - 2005 to 20012; the fact that Dinning used his legal skills not only to deceive unsuspecting victims at the outset but also to retaliate when they sued him; and the fact that he continued to dupe investors even after he was aware that he was being sought by federal authorities.
Many of Dinning's investors, who spanned the globe from California to South Africa, with a good number located in Hampton Roads, were elated with the outcome. Some were also exhausted, having spent many years and much money trying to recoup their losses and to bring to justice the man who initially presented himself as a skilled tax attorney and devout Christian who could use investor money to create sustainable communities among the poor of South Africa while also providing substantial returns to investors.
"We had no idea we'd live in a courtroom for four years of our lives," said Dan Murrill, who stood with his wife Debra before Jackson to make a statement for the prosecution at Dinning's sentencing. The missionary couple from the Harrisburg, Pa., area who had a lifelong dream of establishing a charity to help children in the African country of Malawi, enlisted Dinning in 2008 to help structure the charity with Dan's retirement fund of $220,000. Soon after turning over the money to him, they sued him for fraud and breach of contract, and in 2010 a jury ordered Dinning to pay them more than $722,000. To date, they have received no money, they face a tax bill of $120,000 and they've spent close to $200,000 in legal fees.
Dinning targeted Christians, boasting often about the missionaries in his family, and he also preyed on medical doctors, many from Hampton Roads, some from his native region of southwestern Pennsylvania and some in Canada, his wife's native country.
When making his pitch, he was polished and persuasive, investors said. But when investors pressured him for results after he failed to deliver projects and profits, Dinning turned malicious, mounting at least two countersuits and authoring a blog that maligned investors.
"Google my name and you'll see [Brian's] created a site that associates my name with fraud, racketeering and murder for hire," Murrill said in federal court.
At the sentencing, the judge recommended that while serving his time, Dinning should have no access to technology that would allow him to blog.
Dinning is at Loretto FCI, a low-security federal correctional institution near Altoona in western Pennsylvania, which is not far from where his parents and other family members live in Somerset County.
His release date is listed as Nov. 8, 2023, which would give him a sentence of 10 years. The lesser sentence represents time already served - Dinning was housed in Hampton Roads and Canadian jails for more than a year - and "good time credit," which is given to an inmate at the start of his time, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokewoman.
- Mary Flachsenhaar