In Them, You Trusted Your Money

 You trusted them with your money and they lost it. Yet many of them continue to ply their trade and their profile on the Internet, regardless of their circumstances, or maybe they have been so busy fending off the media and the law they haven’t had time to update their current situation.
Besides, updating their Linkedin profile telling viewers they are under indictment or facing jail time is probably the last thing on their mind.

Let’s start with the most recent and most high profile characters.

The House of Woodard

That’s former CEO of the now defunct Commonwealth Bankshares and the Bank of the Commonwealth, Edward Woodard Jr.
Woodard and four other defendants, including his son T. Brandon Woodard Jr., are facing allegations of a conspiracy that led to the collapse of the Bank of the Commonwealth. The trial begins today in US District Court.

A Linkedin serach shows that Woodard Jr. has two profiles lingering on the Web. One is plain, minus a photograph, and says that he is retired.

The other profile is revealing. He’s at his best: bankerish, conservative, a man who you can trust with your money. He lists his title as the president and CEO at the Bank of the Commonwealth.

His profile also lists associations with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Commonwealth Investment Advisors, LLC and the Bank of the Commonwealth Mortgage.

T. Brandon Woodard, JD, AMB, lists his current job as a business development and operations management consultant, an independent contractor, beginning in 2011.
His profile says he is a management and business development executive and experienced financial and operations analyst. He lists his previous job as Vice President and Manager, Loan Officer, Bank of the Commonwealth Mortgage / Community Home Mortgage of Virginia from 2005 to 2011.

The Gold Digger
Who is Dinning, the international tax lawyer who allegedly operated a Ponzi scheme bilking $2 million from investors and is in jail?

Social entrepreneur who cares about the children of Africa, or so his many Web sites have said, or is he a chameleon, changing to suit the situation?

Is he Ray Dinning? Or is he Brian Dinning? There are two Linkedin profiles and they are the same man, although the names are different.

Here’s Brian Dinning, international tax lawyer, social venture
 

Brian Dinning, International Tax Lawyer, social venture guy, consultant, Harvard University education (to be completed in 2014), Georgetown University Law Center.

Then there’s Ray Dinning, obviously the same guy, but with a different persona, here with his second wife, Sommer. 

Tax Lawyer at B. Ray Dinning, Esq. Law Office and his affiliations included the Council on African Resources and The Carbon Tax Institute.

His profile also includes a stint as Ray Dinning Esq., for 8 years. Among his previous jobs: partner with Huff, Poole & Mahoney, PC, Partner with

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P., and January 2001 – December 2002 (2 years), Senior Tax Partner with Payne Gates.

Funny, but Dinning must have forgotten his stint with Wextrust Capital LLC, whose former chief operations officer, Joseph Shereshevsky, is serving a 22-year sentence in a New Jersey prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of more than $200 million.

Dinning is effusive in this profile. He says he was an Adjunct Professor (Professor

Regent University, January 1997 – January 1998; Tax Attorney at Ginsburg, Feldman & Bress, February 1993 – June 1994; and Judicial Law Clerk and Senior Staff Attorney (he doesn’t say for whom).



The Spender

Jeffrey Martinovich, a College of William & Mary MBA graduate and US Air Force Academy graduate, will go to trial April 9, according to a Daily Press article.
Martinovich was arrested in October, more than a year and a half after his firm collapsed and he declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying he owed millions of dollars to creditors that he couldn't repay, the article said.

Martinovich, who faces 26 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and unlawful monetary transactions, had asked for a continuance in the case so he could care for his terminally ill father, the article said.

At the pretrial hearing Nov. 28, 2012, US District Judge Doumar wrote noted that Martinovich had reported spending $2,100 a month to rent a 3-bedroom condo in downtown Norfolk; $475 a month on a late-model Audi; and $995 for dining out.

His profile shows his profession as Consultant and jis expertise as management consulting. His interests include Leadership, Leadership, Growth, Fitness - Physical & Mental, Children's Charities, Reading, Running and Golf.

Ironic.

He also lists his email: jmartinovich1@gmail.com.

And his honors and awards: Inside Business “Top Forty Under Forty,” Virginia Peninsula Financial Services Advocate of the Year, Hampton Roads “Best Places to Work.”

The Big Kahuna

Who can forget Joseph Shereshevsky, the former Wextrust Capital LLC executive, who caused such commotion and anguish amongst the Orthodox Jewish community in Norfolk when they found out about his schemes.

Mr. Shereshevsky, who admitted to fraud and conspiracy for running a Ponzi scheme, is serving a 22-year sentence and supposedly caring for the spiritual well-being of other incarcerated Jews.

In 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against WexTrust, saying it had raised $255 million from at least 1,196 investors.

"I take full responsibility," he said. "I am very worried for what God has in store for me for desecrating his name ... ,” Shereshevsky said during his sentencing, according to a Reuters article. “To the investors, I destroyed you, and I am sorry."

Shereshevsky has no Linkedin profile.

 But his mug shot is priceless.