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By Curtis Galbraith
Court

Man convicted of defrauding people in northwestern Alberta given 4.5-year jail sentence

Dec 20, 2023 | 3:12 PM

A Calgary man charged in a fraud scheme that included victims in northwestern Alberta has been given a 4.5-year jail sentence.

The Alberta RCMP Federal Policing Integrated Market Enforcement Team and Alberta Securities Commission said in a release that David Del Bianco was given the sentence Monday, December 18 in Court of King’s Bench in Calgary.

Del Bianco had been convicted in July of 2023 on one count each of laundering the proceeds of crime and fraud over $5,000.

The release says Del Bianco had stolen over $523,832.50 from investors through a fake legal services insurance company that went by the name Equal Rights.

He was first charged in 2018.

Del Bianco will be given credit for time already spent in custody. He was also ordered to repay more than $229,138 to seven investors and barred from having a job where he had authority over securities, money, or property for 10 years.

In giving the sentence, Justice Nick Devlin called Del Bianco “an utterly remorseless fraudster” who “continued with a scheme he had repeatedly been told was unlawful.”

Court documents show that between March of 2010 and December 31, 2014, Del Bianco targetted what court documents refer to as “financially unsophisticated people” mostly from rural areas in northwestern Alberta.” None of them ever got their money back.

It was promoted as legal insurance where people agreed to a membership plan and to pay monthly premiums. Some dealt with Del Bianco directly but most through other investors who the court documents say, “acted as agents.’

In a written sentencing decision, Justice Devlin says Del Bianco “systemically stole” from hardworking people by what he called “cruel and persistent securities fraud.”

“Despite previous enforcement actions by the Alberta Securities Commission, David Del Bianco has continued to spin his web of lies to innocent, trusting people. Del Bianco’s deceits have caused significant financial and psychological harm to his victims. The ASC, through our JSOT partnership, is committed to holding Del Bianco and others who repeatedly prey on investors accountable through the criminal courts,” says Alberta Securities Commission director of enforcement Cynthia Campbell in that same release.

Court documents also show that in 2008, Del Bianco had been found guilty of violating ASC sanctions to not engage in trades or hold director positions. This came after a 2002 ruling that he had broken securities laws by “improperly distributing securities.”

The sentence for the 2008 conviction was originally a $10,350 fine plus probation for a year and a lifetime ban on making securities trades or acting as a director or officer for any company that sells securities. The ASC had imposed four-year bans previously.

The conviction was later upheld on appeal, but the probation order was lifted, and the lifetime ban was reduced to eight years.

by Curtis Galbraith