A formerly-barred investment advisor and donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign defrauded investors out of more than $6.8 million, according to charges filed this week by the Department of Justice.
David Schamens, the Greensboro, N.C.-based former advisor, was charged with one count each of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, and the Securities and Exchange Commission also filed charges this week accusing Schamens of running a Ponzi scheme on dozens of investors over several years.
“This is not the first time that David Schamens has been charged by the SEC for misconduct and serves as a good reminder for investors to research potential advisors,” SEC New York Regional Office Director Richard Best said.
Schamens was originally associated with numerous registered entities between 1986 and 1990, including Alex. Brown & Sons and Carolina First Securities, according to his BrokerCheck profile. In 1992, the SEC settled charges against Schamens, arguing he’d “misappropriated investor funds” and the commission permanently barred him from the industry, according to the SEC complaint from this week.
Additionally, Schamens had also skirted campaign finance laws as the head of a political action committee supporting Donald Trump’s 2016 run for president, according to ProPublica.
Beginning in 2014, Schamens began soliciting investors for funds that would fuel trading on entities he controlled,…
