DAVID DAMANTE (AKA “David Dellacroce”): Florida Man, Convicted Felon…And The Most Notorious Con Artist You’ve Never Heard Of
(Even His Dog Knows He’s Shady)
On January 23, 2009, David Damante rolled out of bed and padded down the hall of the Henderson, Nevada rental home he shared with his “fitness model” wife Lea Denee. It would turn out to be a great day — a million-dollar day, in fact.
That million dollars would come in the form of a wire transfer from Michigan chiropractor Robert Buckhannon’s Arcanum hedge fund. The money later “disappeared”, according to federal court records filed in Buckhannon’s 2014 investment fraud case, and it appears the “crooked chiropractor” walked away from his “investment”, writing it off on a subsequent bankruptcy.
But for Damante, it was just another day in what would become a years-long string of audacious fraud schemes.
CHANGING THE PLANET…And Stealing Millions
Damante and his then-wife (they’ve since divorced) formed a home-based business they modestly called “Changing The Planet LLC” in Nevada on October 10, 2008. Damante named himself the corporation’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Damante was also the Chief Financial Officer of another Nevada corporation, Sinymante Enterprises LLC (formed on September 25, 2007).
On ActiveRain, a real estate networking site, Damante’s 2008 profile page (listed under the name “ifundumm”) claimed he worked as a “Real Estate Mortgage Broker” with Mayflower Mortgage in Las Vegas.
Mayflower was run by Derrick Presley but neither Presley nor his company were licensed as mortgage brokers or mortgage loan originators.
And neither was Damante.
But that didn’t stop “ifundumm” from proclaiming (in broken English, apparently):
Our areas of expertise and knowledge are embedded in high end financing including: High rise condos, Casino’s, Commerical buildings, Raw land and construction to perm loans as well.. We have fallout contacts with Turnburry Towers, Trump International, and many loft devolpments. I am also great at retrieving financing for harder to qualify people, and or LLC’s.. Our srevice is never overlooked as well as the Disconcerning Buyer will tell you,” Without the loan,There is no home”! As we are a Banker and a Broker we have many resources to finding what the client needs as their expectations!
Damante’s partners in Sinymante included Sean Sinykin, a California realtor and mortgage broker with a petty theft background and California insurance agent (and future Equity Investment Management and Trading Inc. Ponzi scheme king) William A. Sassman.
Sassman plead guilty in 2011 to 13 counts of “grand theft” and was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. However, Sassman later sued the California Department of Corrections for “early release” under a prison rehabilitation program aimed an reuniting female inmates with their children, claiming it was “unfair” to men.
U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England in Sacramento stated in an order filed September 9, 2015, that the program violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution and the state had failed to explain why the program should exclude men.
Sassman was released in early 2016 and, like Damante, went back to a life of crime.
On June 24, 2021, Sassman was indicted for his alleged role in a wire fraud scheme, and is in custody awaiting trial.
DAVID DAMANTE CRIMINAL HISTORY: The Early Years
David Damante was finally arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 23, 2011, and charged with wire fraud and aiding and abetting, charges stemming from his “Planet” entity.
The indictment alleged that Damante “fraudulently obtained $1 million from one victim and $2 million from two other victims through false representations that the funds would be invested and that the victims would receive substantial profits on their investments.”
Because Damante resided in Arizona, he was supervised by the United States Probation Office in the District of Arizona. In early October 2011, Pretrial Services for the District of Nevada was informed that Damante had obtained two new financial obligations — he attempted to purchase a car and was conditionally approved for a $3 million home loan — without prior approval from Pretrial Services.
An Arizona detective conducted research regarding the home loan. According to the detective, the alleged creator of the pre-approval letter for the home mortgage indicated that she had never met Damante, and upon reviewing the document, stated that it was a fraudulently created document.
On October 14, 2011, Damante was arrested for violating of Pretrial Services release conditions, and made his initial appearance on that date before Magistrate Judge Burns. Magistrate Judge Burns released Damante on amended conditions of release. The amended terms of release included all previously imposed conditions of release as set by the District of Nevada as well as an additional term:
“Defendant shall not enter into any financial accounts to include bank accounts, money market accounts, stock accounts, credit union accounts, and credit card accounts, and shall also not enter into any financial obligations to include secure transactions, purchase agreements, any financial applications in excess of $1,500, with the exclusion of appropriate legal defense expenditures, without prior notification and approval of Pretrial Services.”
But Damante didn’t stop.
On October 27, 2011, Damante requested permission from Pretrial Services to attend his father-in-law’s funeral. Before granting the request, Pretrial Services requested specific information about Damante’s travel plans. It learned that Damante would travel to California from October 28, 2011-November 1, 2011 and would stay at the home of Dr. Scott Zawaba, a friend of his. Dr. Zawaba verified Damante’s plan to stay with him during this time period.
Pretrial Services advised Damante that he must return to the District of Arizona no later than 3:30 PM on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, and that he must check-in in person with Pretrial Services at that date and time.
However, on November 2, 2011, Pretrial Services contacted Dr. Zawaba and was informed that Damante did not stay at his residence while he was in California, nor had he heard from Damante “since last week.” Pretrial Services then contacted Damante’s wife, Lea Denee Damante, who informed Pretrial Services that Damante stayed with her and her mother in Applegate, California all week. Ms. Damante informed Pretrial Services that her husband was on his way back to the District of Arizona.
However, later that day Damante contacted Pretrial Services and informed that he was in “Los Angeles with only $6 in his pocket”, and therefore could not make it back to Arizona by 3:30 PM. He then requested that he be allowed to relocate to Laguna Niguel, California for employment purposes.
Pretrial Services requested that Damante provide the contact information of the friend he planned to live with in California and information regarding his potential employer for verification purposes. However, Damante failed to provide this information to Pretrial Services, so his request for modification of pretrial release was not immediately granted.
On November 2, 2011, Damante appeared “telephonically” before Magistrate Judge Foley on a Hearing on Defendant’s Motion to Modify Conditions of Release. Judge Foley denied Defendant’s request. At a November 21, 2011, hearing on Defendant’s Motion to Modify Conditions of Release, Judge Foley added several conditions to Damante’s release conditions.
But Damante didn’t stop conning.
On January 9, 2012, Damante contacted his supervising officer in the Central District of California and requested permission to obtain a loan for $160,000 “against one of my Ferraris,” which had been seized by the government. The request was denied on January 10, 2012. On January 11, 2012, Damante contacted his supervising officer and indicated that he would like to purchase a home in Newport Beach for $5 million.
Damante requested permission to obtain this new financial obligation. On January 18, 2012, Damante’s supervision officer contacted him and advised him that his requests to obtain a loan on his seized Ferrari and/or to purchase a home in Newport Beach were both denied. Pretrial Services informed Damante that his requests were denied because he failed to provide the Office with verification and documentation regarding the financial transactions.
On January 25, 2012, Damante contacted his supervising officer in California to request permission to open a bank account at US Bank in order to obtain a $2 million loan. When the supervising officer requested the name and contact information of Damante’s friend at US Bank whom would provide him the loan, Damante “became agitated and refused to provide the information”. Pretrial Services denied Damante’s loan request.
Damante later requested permission to obtain a $2.5 million loan through Deutsche Bank.
Because of David Damante’s several requests to obtain large financial obligations, on February 9, 2012, the Court amended the terms of his pretrial release, determining that Damante entered into financial transactions in his own true lawful name and must gain approval from the Court, and not Pretrial Services, before entering into any financial obligation over $1,500.
On May 24, 2012, a FBI agent informed Pretrial Services that it had been contacted by a man named Mike Krasowki, Damante’s friend.
Krasowski indicated that Damante was in the process of purchasing a home at 33 Vista Montemar, Laguna Niguel for $1.5 million. On June 1, 2012, Damante’s supervising officer in California instructed Damante to report to Pretrial Services by 4:00 PM to sign the required documents for Pretrial Services to obtain the relevant escrow information, which Damante had not provided to Pretrial Services. Damante did not report to the office as instructed.
On June 1, 2012, Pretrial Services submitted a Violation Memorandum to Magistrate Judge Foley and a warrant for Defendant’s arrest was issued. Damante was taken into custody and made an initial appearance on June 8, 2012.
He was subsequently released on an Appearance Bond of $50,000. Magistrate Judge Foley added a further term of release: Defendant must sign a release of financial information form.
On June 13, 2012, Damante appeared before Magistrate Judge Hoffman for the Initial Appearance on the Revocation of Pretrial Release.
Damante was ordered released on the same conditions as previously imposed pending the Revocation Hearing.
Damante was also ordered to appear before Magistrate Judge Foley on the Revocation Hearing on July 11, 2012. However, Damante failed to appear. A bench warrant was then issued for his arrest.
According to Damante’s supervising officer in California, Damante traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday July 13, 2012, and self-surrendered to the United States Magistrate Judge on the outstanding warrant. Damante then appeared before Magistrate Judge Hoffman on July 16, 2012, and was ordered detained pending the Revocation Hearing before Magistrate Judge Foley.
On July 23, 2012, Foley revoked Damante’s pretrial release and ordered him taken into custody, where he remained until he accepted a plea deal on November 11, 2012. Damante pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud.
On February 19, 2014, Damante was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison.
NOW IT REALLY GETS INTERESTING
(Full disclosure: I’ve written extensively about Damante for “Glistening, Quivering Underbelly”, a crime/fraud blog I published for nearly 10 years.)
A prolific con artist, by January 2015 David Damante (who used the names Robert Damante and David Diamante), had already been moved from prison to a residential re-entry center in Las Vegas. In May 2015, I received information about “Robert” Damante and a scheme he called “Whey2Go” protein powder.
According to my source, Damante had taken thousands of dollars from his “fiance”, a woman he’d convinced to fund his efforts, including creating corporate documents and establishing bank accounts for “Whey 2 Go”, while concealing his secret deep-pocketed felon partner: a Toronto “Sicilian bomber billionaire” named Rob Carbone.
Nevada corporation records revealed Damante only registered “Whey 2 Go USA Ltd” as a business entity on April 6, 2015.
However, a “Robert Damante” registered the company’s domain name (whey2gousa.com) on February 24, 2015 using a “2901 Industrial Avenue” Las Vegas address as its corporate headquarters location.
Damante’s “company” shared the same address as the Las Vegas Community Correctional Center.
On June 1, 2015, Damante was returned to custody to complete the remainder of his sentence due to his “violation conduct”.
According to federal court records, “documentation received suggests
Damante and his business partner, Jerry Frawley, were attempting to start a vitamin and supplement business”, where Damante was listed as “President.”
His partner in “Whey2Go”, Arizona resident Jerry Frawley, was aware of
Damante’s status, indicating the company was developed to try and defraud other businesses. Damante’s federal court records reveal the supervising parole officer had “received a contract from a foreign car dealer in
town, showing Damante attempted to purchase a Lamborghini on or about May 1, 2015”, under the business name, “WheytogoUSA.”
On June 18, 2015, he admitted he tried to purchase the car, but offered no explanation as to why.
Damante went on to violate the terms of his release two more times before his federal supervision expired in December 2020.
During a June 29, 2018 court hearing, Damante admitted violating multiple conditions of his supervised release, including using his purported ownership of two fugazi Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings to fraudulently obtain nearly $500,000 from three victims between March and June of that year. Damante forged reams of documents, including this crudely faked document created to prove he had picked up “Helicopter Cityscape” from storage at Art Encounter in Las Vegas.
In a September 27, 2017 affidavit, David Damante, using the surname ‘Diamante’, asserted ownership of the Basquiat painting titled “Helicopter Cityscape” (above): “the above referenced Basquiat was a gift from my father Angelo who left it to me prior to his passing in May 6, 2016.”
Damante’s assertions were supported by a cohort, Brett Revell, who’d previously claimed in a July 31, 2017 “Affidavit” that he’d kept the Basquiat painting “in safe keeping“ at the request of Angelo Damante.
The painting, purportedly taken by Damante’s associate Brett Revell in October 2016 to a Las Vegas gallery he dubbed “Art Encounters” (adding an unnecessary ‘s’), was picked up several months later by Damante.
How do I know that?
Well, Damante proffered this crudely faked document as proof — if only he’d spelled the artist’s name correctly!
For the record, it’s Jean-Michel — with a hyphen and without an ‘e’.
The sprawling story of this con was detailed on my crime/fraud blog, “Glistening, Quivering Underbelly”, in three installments (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).
It’s entertaining, even if I have to say it myself!
