Federal Prosecutors Allege That Fake FiDi Bank Scammed Millions from Gullible Customers
A disbarred attorney and convicted felon pleaded guilty in Lower Manhattan’s federal courthouse on Thursday to charges that he swindled more than $4 million out of victims seeking loans, in his role as the “chief compliance officer” at a fake bank in the Financial District.
Gerald Shaw, 75, who previously served time in federal prison for a high-yield investment scam in California, was arrested in 2023 for his role at Dominion Bank and Trust Company Limited, formerly located at 17 State Street.
In his capacity representing Dominion, according to federal charging documents, Mr. Shaw would tell prospective clients that his firm had roughly $24 billion in assets and offer them documents known as “standby letters of credit” (SBLCs), which assure counterparties in a pending transaction that adequate funds are on deposit to fulfill any contractual obligations (such as payment for the sale of a large block of securities or commodities). In exchange for issuing an SLBC attesting to a client’s ability to pay, for example, $50 million when a transaction closed, Dominion would charge a “service fee” of between $50,000 and $100,000.
This is what investigators call an “advanced fee fraud scheme,” in which the operator extracts upfront payments in exchange for future credit or financing that never materializes. By replicating this playbook at least 60 times between 2015 and 2020, Dominion and Mr. Shaw obtained more than $4 million in payments from clients, federal prosecutors allege. In some cases, when clients complained that they had been not received the service they had paid for, Dominion sent them invoices for additional payments.
Mr. Shaw himself was paid a relative pittance for this lucrative racket. According to federal charging documents, he was supposed to receive $500 each week, but repeatedly emailed Dominion executives complaining that they were weeks behind in paying him. The same documents say that Mr. Shaw was paid a total of $43,000 during his multiple years with Dominion.
On April 10, 2025, Mr. Shaw entered guilty pleas to one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.