On July 19, Victor M. Dandridge III pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud. These charges carry a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and a maximum of 30 years and a $1 million fine, respectively.
Dandridge has held many titles other than defendant, including former president of the Farmington Country Club, Farmington Property Owners Association, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Virginia Omicron Chapter House of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and owner of several capital management companies.
Dandridge was originally brought into court when Lynne Kinder filed a $9 million lawsuit alleging that Dandridge offered to manage her assets after her husband died in 2005 and ended up stealing nearly $7 million to prop up his own failing businesses. She says of the $6.9 million that she entrusted to Dandridge, she only had recovered $735,000.
In Kinder’s original lawsuit, she also named Dandridge’s wife and several other defendants responsible for the financial misconduct. In response, Dandridge states that “he is solely responsible and to blame for his despicable conduct and other defendants’ only fault would have been to have believed him.”
Kinder will receive $3.2 million. He also agreed to “compensate Blue Ridge Bank $302,000 for a loan based on false financial information, and to make restitution of $118,527 to Virginia Omicron Chapter House Association.”
While Dandridge was president of the Virginia Omicron Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he refinanced the fraternity house with a $330,000 loan for a $204,000 mortgage. He put the excess money into his personal bank account.
Since then, Dandridge has filed for bankruptcy at the behest of the U.S. attorney and Kinder’s attorney to document the assets he has, and “not with the purpose of having any discharge” of his debts.
