David W. Schamens, Pro-Trump PAC Treasurer, Rants About Hillary Clinton After Feds Charge Him for Ponzi Scheme

Treasurer of a The pro-Trump political action committee violated campaign finance laws almost immediately after it was founded was accused of running an international Ponzi scheme in which he allegedly defrauded investors of almost $7 million which he used to fund for her lavish lifestyle, which includes vacations, luxury cars and a million-dollar home prepayment.

David W. Schamensa 64-year-old North Carolina resident who in 1996 was banned from the securities industry by the SEC on fraud chargesis currently charged with securities fraud, along with wire fraud and money laundering, according to an unsealed criminal complaint Monday in New Jersey federal court.

Schamens, federally claimed, ran a years-long scam with victims in at least three US states and as far away as Australia. But Schamens, the head of a New Jersey-based company that develops and sells stock trading software, oddly claims that the allegations are the product of a political vendor being made. for his support of Trump, who he now says broke his campaign promise. Build a wall along the US border with Mexico.

Schamens told The Daily Beast of the decision to charge him: “This is thermonuclear war. “It was made up. I believe 5,000 subpoenas were sent in the last year, right? I believe there is a statement of [Attorney General] Merrick Garland says they will go after anyone who supports January 6, whether they are there or not. I wasn’t there, but that’s the point — it doesn’t matter whether you’re there or not. ”

(The January 6 committee and others did in fact issued approximately 5,000 subpoenas and search warrants regarding the Capitol riots. Wreath, in a speech on January 5He said he would hold “all perpetrators on January 6, at any level, accountable to the law – whether they were present that day or criminally responsible for the attack.” our democracy,” in response to calls for Donald Trump to face responsibility for his alleged role in inciting the siege, but not to those who simply agree with rioters.)

Scamens’ PAC, called “America goes first,” was founded in 2016 and supported the hard-line policies of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. In a television advertisement, the organization said Trump’s False Claims About Hillary Clinton’s Emailsstressed that the former Secretary of State considers national security “a joke.”

“Trump is very serious,” the ad said, about six years before the National Archives discovered classified documents had been taken from the White House to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in New York. Florida.

The scam allegedly carried out by Schamens began in 2014 and lasted until June 2021, prosecutors allege in their complaint, saying investors were promised knife profits from 12% to 30% annually.

“However, in reality, Schamens was running a Ponzi scheme and stealing the Victim Investors’ funds,” the filing states.

At least 25 people have lost large sums of money as a result of Scamens’ alleged fraud, using “fabricated monthly account statements … that misrepresent returns related to their investments” and “profits” bogus explanations for delayed and/or incomplete dividend payments and/or repurchases,” according to the federal government.

According to prosecutors, Schamens sold his investment opportunity as a surefire bet. His firms lend money to day traders in need of funds, executing trades on TradeStream, a platform operated by Schamens. Profits will come from TradeStream fees applicable to day traders, regardless of whether their trades make money or not, investors, some of whom have already deposited part of their retirement accounts in the link. business, has been told.

In 2018, a number of Scamens customers began demanding their money back, the lawsuit states. Schamens “returned some of the… funds, in part using funds coming from other investors in the manner of a Ponzi scheme,” it explained. However, not everyone was so lucky, as Schamens “ripped victim Investors through misrepresentations and false promises”.

To date, investigators say they have identified at least four investors who lost a total of $3.35 million in the TradeStream offering.

The following year, prosecutors said that Scamens began soliciting investments in what he called the Algo Fund, describing it in presentations as a “proprietary algorithmic-traded fund” managed by TradeStream. Investors were told the fund would use “modern servers” located in the same data centers as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, according to the complaint.

Like TradeStream, however, Scamens provided its Algo Fund clients with “falsified records of the status of [their] investments,” the complaint states.

Investigators say they have so far identified at least 25 victims who have lost a total of $3.45 million due to investments in the Algo Fund.

The federals said they tracked the money, tracking investor funds flowing into Schamens corporate bank accounts, quickly moving through accounts in the names of law firms unrelated to the funds. investments, then into accounts in the names of companies controlled by Schamens, and finally into Scamens’ personal bank accounts. The suit said the money was “used largely for personal expenses”.

When an alleged victim became suspicious of Schamens, he attempted to liquidate his $2.9 million investment. Schamens returned $300,000 to the unnamed investor, “all of which was obtained from other Victim Investors,” according to the complaint.

Realizing that the rest of her funds had not arrived, “Victim-1 asked for an explanation of the delay in receiving the ransom,” the complaint continued. “Schamens repeatedly excused the delay and continued to falsely assure Victim-1 that the bank transfer was sent or pending.”

The balance in the account – worth $2.6 million – never appeared, the federalists said.

Schamens used a script identical to the others, emphasizing that everything is on the board in messages “calculated to lull [victims] into a false sense of security,” according to the complaint.

In 2020, Scamens started looking for a new “investment” opportunity.

Claiming that he was “too tired of dealing with” traders supporting one of his other funds, Schamens told potential clients he “wanted to transition to the savings plan market.” health.” Companies that offer health savings accounts to their employees will invest that money in the Algo Fund, which Schamens said will increase the value of those health savings accounts as well as generate profits. for investors of the Algo Fund.

But again, investors lost confidence and began demanding their money back, the federalists said.

“Schamens often cite issues such as extreme weather, travel and illness as reasons for frequent delays in disbursement of their funds,” the complaint states.

“On May 29, 2021, Victim-4 sent an email to Schamens with the subject line: ‘Wits End!’” it explained.

“David… We don’t know what to do to get money from you,” the notice began, according to the complaint. “This journey started last October. As you know, I have a long series of emails from you promising ‘by the end of the week’ or ‘next week’ [o]even ‘the wiring center was in Dallas and was closed due to freezing.’ Can you please let me know when you will actually distribute the funds? “

In the end, Scamens used other customers’ investments to return $150,000 to the unhappy customer. The other $360,000 they invested was supposed to never show up again. Overall, investigators say Schamens made at least $6.8 million in ill-gotten gains.

Schamens is no stranger to being under the microscopes of federal investigators. In 2016, America Comes First fell into the limelight after failing to disclose the names of donors before Election Day and exceeding campaign contribution limits, According to an investigation by ProPublica.

“They basically don’t follow any campaign finance laws,” one lawyer told the news agency.

Two days after the election, America Comes First posted a now-deleted photo on Facebook showing Schamens meeting with President-elect Trump.

In a phone interview with The Daily Beast on Monday, Schamens claimed to have “tested against Hillary Clinton in a secret grand jury in 1997,” with the aim of obtaining evidence of “millions of people.” dollars contributed to the campaign illegally outside of China. So you can draw your conclusions from that.”

“That’s where it all started,” says Scamens. With that bitch Hillary Clinton… I got my computer confiscated [by the feds]”I had all my information seized, my daughter and wife had automatic weapons pointed at them when they arrested them at 6am on August 31.”

Claiming that the allegations in the affidavit used to obtain the warrant to search his home were “100% untrue,” Scamens promised to provide evidence “later.”

“I won’t join right now, I don’t have time,” he said. “But I’ll tell you something – I’m not happy. I’m tired of living in this country and getting attacked if you go against politics… If you’re not in the right group, they’ll come after you… In this country, politics is now criminalized. That’s what’s going on here.”

Schamens added that he shared an unspecified piece of evidence with Trump about Clinton, claiming that Trump had promised, “Don’t worry, Dave. We will catch her. ”

However, he said the blooming now is the rose for him in regards to Trump.

“He promised to build a wall,” says Schamens. “Never happened.”

Schamens, who is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for money transfer fraud, 25 years for securities fraud and 20 years for money laundering, has yet to appear in court.

“They’re trying to destroy our company, that’s what they’re trying to do,” he said. “They stole our code, I’m almost certain. They denied it, but our server was stolen in 2021 from a secure military-style data center. When this investigation started, they were all stolen.”

However, he concluded, “All I need is an honest judge and a good jury, not someone who hates everyone on Wall Street. But I’m really angry about being abused and poisoned and I’m not happy about that… I am a very strong Christian, I believe this pandemic has brought out good people and eliminated them. leave the bad people. Almost like in the Old Testament, Passover, everyone had a seal on their door. That’s what the pandemic did. You know where everyone is standing. ”

The SEC on Monday filed a parallel complaint against Schamens, accusing him of lying to retail investors.

“This is not the first time David Schamens has been charged with misconduct by the SEC and serves as a good reminder for investors to research potential advisors,” said Richard R. Best, Regional Office Director. the New York section of the SEC, said in a statement. “Before giving someone else to manage your money, investors should visit Investor.gov, where they can check out potential advisors.”