Portland Man, Former Senior Vice President at DAT Solutions, Sentenced for Defrauding His Own Company of $1.4 Million

Topics:  David Schrader, DAT Solutions

U.S. Attorney’s Office
2 October 2014

PORTLAND, OR—David Schrader, 47, of Portland, Oregon, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Jones to 46 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for the crime of wire fraud. He was also ordered to pay over $1.4 million in restitution to DAT Solutions (formerly Transcore), the victim of his crime, as well as a sizeable money judgment to the government as punishment for his crime. Schrader pleaded guilty to the crime of wire fraud in June of this year.

Between 2003 and 2014, Schrader stole more than $1.4 million from the company while employed as the Senior Vice President of Operations. At the time the company discovered his theft in early 2014, Schrader was one of the highest paid employees at DAT, earning close to half a million dollars in salary and benefits. Schrader accomplished his theft by submitting false expense reports to DAT’s accounting department that either falsified or inflated the amounts for which defendant was actually entitled to receive reimbursement. As part of his fraud, Schrader forged the signature of DAT’s president, fabricated approval e-mails from the president on his fraudulent reports, and submitted false credit card statements.

Tim Bickmore, the former president of DAT Solutions, testified at the sentencing hearing about the toll that Schrader’s fraud had taken on the company. During many of the years that Schrader’s fraud went undetected, DAT Solutions was dealing with the consequences of the recession affecting all U.S. companies. As a result of the combination of the recession and the significant theft by Schrader, DAT was forced to lay off multiple employees and make adjustments to the salaries and bonuses of other employees, many within the state Oregon, Mr. Bickmore told Judge Jones. David Liner, general counsel for DAT Solutions, also testified at the sentencing, and estimated that the actual loss to DAT’s shareholders—which included employee retirement funds—exceeded $22 million. When handing down Mr. Schrader’s sentence of 46 months in prison, Judge Jones told the defendant that when he was called a crook, a liar, a cheat, and a forger by his former colleagues, he had “earned each of those titles.”

The investigation of this case was conducted by the FBI, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Kerin and Katie Lorenz.