When Todd Lamb relocated his boat-building company, Spectre Powerboats, to DeLand in 2021, it looked to be a solid economic win for the area.
Lamb would lease a 26,000-square-foot space at DeLand Municipal Airport and had plans to bring in several jobs. Local economic development officials were instrumental in the site search process, according to a news release, which is no longer available online.
“We welcome Spectre Powerboats to our community and our growing list of marine manufacturers,” said Volusia County Manager George Recktenwald. “Spectre’s move to Volusia County is another indication that this is a great place to do business.”
It turns out, by the time Lamb got here, he was already in trouble. A court had put his boat-building business in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in receivership after a lawsuit over allegations of stealing. And things kind of went downhill from there.
Lamb will learn today, Nov. 26, 2025, if he will spend the next 30-plus years in an Ohio prison for stealing from people who paid to have expensive boats built but never got them.
In October, an Ohio jury agreed with multiple victims from six states that Lamb stole more than $850,000 from them. Prosecutor Eric Stewart in Logan County, Ohio, said nine felony charges against ex-wife Karen Lamb were dismissed because she cooperated with investigators against Todd.
The story of Todd Lamb and Spectre Powerboats
Lamb planned an initial workforce of 15-20, expecting it to double in three years. The average wage was estimated at $40,000, with a capital expenditure of about $3 million, according to the county’s economic development authority.
But in Volusia County, he appeared to follow a familiar pattern.
He was sued by New York businessman, Terrance Weber, who accused him of stealing $271,787 plus a Spectre performance boat the New York man traded in for $80,000. Weber got so frustrated with Lamb that he hired someone in 2024 to steal back his trade-in.
Weber was charged with burglary and is on probation. Reached Tuesday, Nov. 4, Weber said, despite the decision that Volusia County prosecutors made in his case, he was glad to see the Ohio jury’s verdict.Four years ago, after local authorities in DeLand would not criminally charge Lamb, Weber took to social media to publicize the boat builder’s actions.”I got on social media then to let everyone know what he was doing. All along, I said Todd Lamb was a thief and the jury in Ohio agreed,” Weber said in a telephone Interview. “I feel vindicated, especially seeing how long and how hard I tried to get authorities to listen to me.”
Weber would become Todd Lamb’s nightmare. DeLand police declined to investigate and pursue charges against the boat builder, ultimately telling Weber that Lamb was a legitimate businessman and that the issue was civil.
So, Weber sued Lamb in April 2024. But he didn’t just file court papers.
Social media campaign publicizing theft
Weber launched a social media campaign that exposed Todd Lamb’s dealings. The cyber effort brought together multiple other victims who had paid Todd Lamb big money to build very expensive speed boats at his Ohio plant, but got nothing in return.
Weber’s social media campaign was so effective that prosecutors in Volusia County had a judge order him to stop making posts about Todd Lamb online.
But not before Weber’s online campaign formed a camaraderie among victims defrauded by the former DeLand boat builder, on a scale that a Michigan victim described as “like losing a house.”
The victims said Weber’s online campaign put Todd Lamb out of business, thus preventing others from being ripped off.
Bryan Shorstein, spokesman for the Seventh Circuit’s State Attorney’s Office, did not respond to a News-Journal inquiry on whether his office will investigate Lamb now that an Ohio jury did find that the boat builder stole from Weber, as a DeLand businessman.
So what did Todd Lamb do to face a long time behind bars?
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation said Todd Lamb and his former wife, Karen, started Screaming Eagles Boats LLC. in June 2015, but in 2018 changed the name of the business to Spectre Powerboats LLC., operating in Logan County, Ohio.
But rather than build boats, the Lambs used the business to facilitate extensive fraud and theft offenses, including defrauding and stealing from victims who entered build agreements with them for expensive, high-end custom boats, Ohio investigators said.
Todd Lamb told investigators he built the boats and Karen Lamb handled the “office end,” which included getting payment from customers through wire transfers, investigators said.
According to some of the victims who spoke to The News-Journal, Todd Lamb advertised his boat-building business on social media platforms for boating enthusiasts. And when he met them in person, he came across as a smooth talker, able to convince customers to upgrade their boat orders for more money, an Ohio victim said.
A man from New Jersey paid Todd Lamb to build a 32-foot Spectre Powerboat with two Mercury 400S motors for $194,000 in December 2017. Eight months later, Karen Lamb emailed the victim that his Mercury motors had been acquired and provided him with the serial numbers, the report states.
Then, in March 2019, Todd Lamb listed the New Jersey man’s motors as collateral for a loan at Richmond Banking Company.
He later sold the victim’s motors and boat to a third party and pocketed the money, investigators said.
Todd Lamb later agreed to pay back the victim $143,650 with an 8% interest rate, but stopped paying after making minimal payments, investigators said.
The victim sued Todd and Karen Lamb, and a judge put the business in receivership. In another case, an Ohio man in 2018 ordered a 24-foot Talon Powerboat with two rare Mercury 300XS motors for $136,079.
Then, in a separate agreement with Lamb, the victim agreed to buy a Talon line of 26-foot boat-hull molds that had not yet been made for $94,900.
The Ohio customer confronted Todd Lamb after finding his boat incomplete. The boat builder demanded an additional $75,000 and told the victim, “Just sue me,” the report shows.
Lamb then sold the victim’s engines and his boat to a third party and kept that money, investigators said. The Ohio man lost $209,080, the report highlighted.
An elderly Delaware man, listed as Lamb’s third victim, ordered and paid $308,918.50 for a 32-foot Spectre Powerboat with two Mercury motors in 2019. A year later, Lamb posted the victim’s boat on Facebook, moved it to Georgia to get it outfitted with internal parts and components. The victim never got the boat, investigators said.
The Delaware victim got his incomplete boat in a civil action and was able to sell it for $100,000, but he was out $200,461.50, Ohio investigators said.
Investigators said they also discovered that Todd Lamb and his wife, Karen, made a loan from Richmond Banking Company using four outboard motors as collateral, two of which belonged to the New Jersey victim.
The Lambs borrowed $119,944, and after a court ordered the receivership, the Lambs defaulted on the loan and left owing a balance of $73,668.75, the report states.
Even a Georgia boating company that outfits speed boats lost money to Lamb’s theft scheme, investigators said.
DR Performance in Gainesville, Georgia, agreed to buy boat hulls from Lamb. The business paid him $138,132.48 through wire transfers for four boat hulls but never got them, investigators said.
Todd Lamb listed the hulls for sale on his Facebook page, the report said.
Maximum penalty and full restitution
Lamb’s victims, including Weber, told the News-Journal that they want to see him end up in prison for a very long time.
In an impact statement to the sentencing judge, Weber said that various civil litigations, orders from the court, and a receivership instituted by an Ohio court were not enough to prevent Lamb “from absconding to Florida, where I became the victim of his ongoing scam.”
Weber said Todd Lamb has not shown any remorse for his crimes and has compounded the losses of the victims, including the elderly, with his “relentless, righteous indignation towards his victims.”
“Todd Lamb worked feverishly, day and night, not only to steal from us but also to turn the victims into perpetrators, casting himself as the true victim,” Weber said in his impact statement.
Now that a jury determined Todd Lamb was guilty, Weber said he deserves 32 years in prison.
“One way would be if Your Honor could fix what has clearly been a broken system and give Todd Lamb what he should have been given many times through the course of his actions: the maximum penalty and full restitution to all his victims,” Weber wrote in his impact statement.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DeLand boat builder expected to be sentenced today in Ohio
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
