A former speedboat builder who received a warm welcome five years ago from officials happy to see him establish a business in Volusia County, Florida, faces more than 30 years in prison after an Ohio jury found him guilty of defrauding boat owners in six states.
Todd Allen Lamb, 51, was found guilty by a jury of six counts of felony theft, one count of defrauding creditors and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, Prosecutor Eric Stewart said in Logan County, Ohio, on Friday, Oct. 31.
“He defrauded victims from multiple states, including Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee,” Stewart said.
Lamb, arrested after a three-day trial that ended with a guilty verdict, faces a maximum sentence of 32 and a half years in prison. He will be sentenced Nov. 26, Stewart said in an email to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The case against Lamb’s ex-wife, Karen Nicole Lamb, who was also charged in Ohio with nine counts, including felony counts of grand larceny in September 2024, is still pending, Stewart said.
Todd Lamb and his family received a warm welcome when he moved his performance boat company, Specter Powerboats, to a 26,000-square-foot space at Florida’s DeLand Municipal Airport from central Ohio, according to a December 2021 news release.
The sailor who stole his boat does not object
The News-Journal first learned of the fraud charges against the Lambs in 2024 from Terrance Weber, a New York businessman, who filed a lawsuit in Volusia County court in April 2024, accusing the Lambs of scamming him out of $271,787 plus a Specter performance boat that he traded in for $80,000.
Weber was arrested on December 24, 2022 for allegedly paying a man to steal the trade-in boat from Lamb’s DeLand store after the boat’s builder failed to deliver.
Weber pleaded no contest to burglary of an occupied structure on July 30 and his guilty plea was withheld. He was sentenced to four years of probation.
Todd Lamb was not prosecuted in Volusia County for the alleged theft of $271,787 from Weber, and the court listed Todd Lamb as a victim, documents state.
A judge ordered Weber not to post anything about Lamb or his business on social media. Court documents show Weber was also ordered to pay Todd Lamb $50,000 in damages.
Weber, contacted Friday, Oct. 31, said the court said the $50,000 was for damaging the boat he traded to Todd Lamb as part of payment for a new boat Lamb agreed to build in 2021.
“It just doesn’t make any sense. They made Todd the victim when I was the one he robbed from,” Weber said. “Why would I damage the ship I was going to keep?”
Ohio Prosecutors: DeLand Boat Builder Robbed Boat Owners
Todd Lamb agreed to build a new 32-foot twin-outboard high-performance Specter Cat boat for Weber, which he never delivered, according to the April 2024 lawsuit.
Ohio prosecutors said Todd Lamb did the same thing to other boat owners: He took their money and didn’t build their boats.
In September 2024, Stewart provided the News-Journal with charging documents showing charges against Todd Lamb and Karen Lamb.
Logan County court documents showed Lambs participated in the alleged criminal activity beginning in 2017.
Between Dec. 19, 2017, and June 19, 2020, the Lambs “deprived an Ohio man of property and services” and stole $143,650 along with two Mercury boat engines, the document states.
From February 9, 2018 to October 10, 2018, the Lambs allegedly stole $209,339 from another Ohio man.
A state elder lost $300,462 to the Lambs, who never provided him with property or services, the court document describes.
All funds taken from Ohio residents were paid to the Lambs to build boats, Stewart said.
“They never received their boats and they didn’t get their money back,” Stewart said.
The Lambs also deprived Caterpillar, a heavy equipment company, of two hydraulic excavators in March and December 2020. And the couple also defrauded Caterpillar as creditors of more than $7,500 but less than $150,000, the Ohio prosecutor said.
“He signed a lease on the cheap and then sold the machines and never paid the lease,” Stewart said in September 2024.
This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Former DeLand Boat Builder Todd Allen Lamb Guilty of Fraud in Ohio