Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Inside the Mind of a Fraudster Who Outsmarted the System | David Srail
Thu, 30 Jan 2025
Dave Srail's Roommate explains what it was like living with an con man and seeing his scam come apart. https://davesrail.com Daves Criminal Website Book a Call With Dan Wise https://calendly.com/federalprisontime/matt-cox Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What was it like living with a con man?
So I was just going to the racetrack, basically. And so this guy sitting in the corner didn't bug us, really played it cool. And that's what a con man needs to do, kind of worked his way in. But we noticed he was a pretty good handicapper. He would pick some winners, and if he won, he would buy us a round of drinks.
And Dave's like, hey, why don't you come move in with me and get a job where I work? I had mentioned something about watching the Kentucky Derby because that's my thing. I'm into horse racing. And Dave said, hey, at work, don't mention horse racing. Okay, so that was the only really thing that made me hesitate early on.
And I'd see him talking to people, but everybody was Dave's friend at the office. This guy, everybody loved him. He had scams that he was working on, but I didn't know it at the time. So one Saturday, I'm at home. Mail goes through the slot. And it's his Bank of America statement. I opened it.
Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I'm going to be doing an interview with Dave Wheelhauer, and we're going to be talking about a con man. So check out the video.
Dave, how are you?
I'm good. I'm good. I got a little story to tell you. I know. So you contacted me. You said, hey, man, listen, I know this guy. He was a con man. This is an insane story. And then we talked on the phone a couple of times. And you like you're not obviously the con man, but you were you ended up living with this guy and you were friends with him for how long?
I lived with him for six months. Right. And I saw kind of watch the whole thing unfold. I saw the tragic end when he skipped town in the end, but we'll get to that. But I just saw the way he manipulated people, and it's a pretty amazing story. And this guy had known these people for six, seven years, so it's not like some guy that just came in someone's life.
But he was a con man, and he was setting them all up in a long con.
What happened? One, did you ever find out... Had he ever done this before? He'd done it before. Right. And then what? So then he comes into town. And he darts over. He moves to Florida. Where had he lived before? Cleveland, Ohio. And he'd done it in Cleveland. Yes. What had he done there?
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Chapter 2: How did Dave Srail manipulate those around him?
I'm not going to tell him I'm going antiquing.
Right. So, work's going fine.
I'm doing well. I'm progressing there. I remember one day he had a Friday off and my car wouldn't start. And he said he was going antiquing. Right. I was like, all right, knock yourself out. I'll see you later. We'll meet at the bar. You know, something like that. And I called my uncle and he's like, I'll come down, jump you. And he's got to drive like 45 miles. He's the only person I could find.
One of the lifeguard friends of ours that we play poker with at night says, hey, I'll give you a jump start. So I called my uncle back and said, hold off. He said, I'm still going to meet you. Meet me at Pep Boys. We've got to get you a new battery. The weather turns hot, batteries go bad. So... It's turn off, jump start. But when I turn the car off, wouldn't restart, needs a new battery.
I drive, meet my uncle. I come back. And in Florida, in the East Coast, you have intercoastal waterways. You've got to go over the bridge to get back because we live, you know, the ocean side of the intercoastal. And I remember driving by Dania Highlight because that was just the way back to the house. And I saw Dave's car sitting there at like 11 o'clock in the morning. Okay.
I thought, that's weird. Maybe his antiquing got done early.
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So I'm like, oh, that guy, he's junking out betting the ponies. Right. So when I called him later, he pretended like he was still antiquing.
I was like, when we say antiquing, we mean. We mean like going, buying antiquing. So you think he's really going antiquing. I thought antiquing was code for I'm at the races.
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Chapter 3: What were the red flags about Dave's behavior?
If I'm taking a check out, even if we're on the friends, I'm paying, I'm just paying. It's just, that's the reality. I'm paying, you know, I'm old school like that.
It's just what it is. So, and it just, I just remember thinking, this is weird. So one Saturday I'm at home, mail goes through the slot and it's his bank of America statement. I opened it.
Totally inappropriate. But anyway, what is that? You know what? And I feel bad. I feel bad. Nobody feels worse about this than me. But that fucker was thick.
I did feel bad. But he's got my buddy Matt money for 30 grand. 30 grand. And Matt just told me, I'm giving him another 15. And I'm like, I don't know, dude. Hold off. Make sure these... First couple deals go through. What are you giving them more money for? Right. So I opened up, and I figured, hey, I made a little sketchy myself. I'll glue it back together, make it look good like it wasn't open.
Yeah, or it didn't show up. Yeah. I've done that before. You're missing, yeah. I have a couple things not show up here, too. Yeah. Mom and dad's credit card when you're a kid. Oh, that's my statement. That goes bye-bye, right? Yeah. Kids don't do that. So I looked. He got the money from Matt. It didn't go to the bank. It was withdraw, withdraw, withdraw.
But I didn't say anything to him because I thought, how would I know? Maybe he and the vice president of the bank are putting one over on Matt. Yeah, he's partners in the deal, but they're pocketing their profits up front. Right. Okay. So you don't know exactly how the money is distributed. I don't know exactly how they made the arrangement, but I kind of know.
And I remember we're in August and we started getting some really bad rainstorms and there were some hurricanes in 05. There was Charlie, there was Katrina and Wilma later on. And My grandma wasn't staying in her place in Lighthouse Point. And I remember Dave called. I was staying up there. I would spend a lot of nights up there because I started seeing this chick.
And it was kind of get away from him. I kind of had my fill with him. Mm-hmm. Now, I'll be the first to tell you, he's an amazing dude to hang out with. He's a lot of fun. He's very charismatic, and that's why people like him. My buddy at ABN Amro that taught me the mortgage business, Kevin Goodnow, thought, that guy's shady. There's something about him I don't like.
And he's the only person in the whole office...
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Chapter 4: How did Dave's scams evolve over time?
They've got warehouses full of stamps. And he said, we have companies that'll buy them, but they might have to piece them together. But if we can buy them for 40, 50, 60 cents in the dollar, then go to the IBM or somebody that still sends out mail. and packages it up for them, hey, yeah, they can buy it at a discount, so it makes sense.
Sounds like bullshit to me, but I hear you. I hear you.
Again, when he told me that, I'm not thinking anything, but he wants me to talk to people that I'm just not going to go...
And you remember, I'm a former... I'm not going to ruin your credibility.
I'm a former stockbroker. I never asked Paul one time to manage his money.
Right.
And that's what I do. Right. And when I say manage his money, I would talk about putting his money in a Schwab where he could see it online and he would just pay me quarterly because that's what I did at a company, Atlanta Capital Management. I brought all my assets to them and they paid me quarterly. And I hadn't even pitched them on that.
Right.
So if I'm not, cause I'm more about friendship than worrying about getting your business.
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Chapter 5: What ultimately led to Dave's downfall?
And think about this, Matt. I would call Ken Srail, Dave's brother, just to get some background. And he would tell me that, yeah, it was an insurance company. I think it was State Farm. I'm not positive. He did the same thing seven or eight years earlier. That's why he had to leave Cleveland. And his mom and dad paid his debts to make people whole.
And so he left with his tail between his legs and went to Florida. And started over. And started over. And he ended up doing the same thing. And Ken said, you know what's funny? is Avelina would end up calling, getting the number for Ken's, but Dave happened to walk by and Ken said, yeah, tell Dave I said hi. And I guess she was embarrassed because she wanted to find out where her money was.
So she's just going to call the brother because Dave acts like Ken's in on it. Yeah, yeah. And he said, yeah, tell Dave to call me. And so Ken said, yeah, I was wondering if he was up to his old tricks because I was getting weird emails to my website. But what Dave ended up doing was copying Ken on emails, but making up his own Ken Srael that he could, you know, anybody can start a new.
Right, right. My brother's Ken Srael. Ken Srael 11 at yahoo.com. And that comes to me. I set the email up. And so that's what he was doing them. These people were pissed.
So I don't understand. There was no brother? There was a brother.
The brother didn't know anything about what Dave was doing.
I assume the brother knew nothing.
He's pissed that his brother's done this all over again and hurt more people. And so I end up talking to Ken. Super nice guy. And I, you know, I'm like, I just live with this brother. I was like, your brother's a good guy. If he just would put his, he's like, my brother's a smart guy. He just can't help himself. He's just a scumbag. He just, he just can't get over that.
And you gotta figure, they didn't give, the stamp deal is what he, I think he sold all the people in the office on. That didn't happen two years ago. That was recent. So he was actually doing good. But something happened along the way where he started getting in more debt.
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Chapter 6: What impact did Dave's actions have on his victims?
Yeah. And let me tell you something. I grew up on boats. I love fishing. But A, it's way too cold. Yeah. It's bitter cold up there. And that is a rough job. Because... They treat you like shit if you're brand new going out on those boats. I was going to say, and you borrow money from those guys. You're done. Yeah. You get keelhauled if you do that. Tell me again about those antiques.
But if you've noticed, if you know anything about Deadliest Catch, a lot of them get picked up for drugs and fraud and theft, but they can go there to make quick money.
Well, maybe that's what he's doing. Maybe Dave's stockpiling money to pay everybody back. I don't think you're giving him credit.
Yeah, I was hoping. You know what? I hope the guy hits for a million dollars and sends that guy David.
I bet you if he hit for fucking 10 million, he ain't paying those people shit.
I agree.
They're never seen a dime.
I was telling Colby, it's sad because he's such a fun guy to hang out with. There's just some people. They have that magnetic personality.
I know a guy named Red Bull. Loved hanging out with him. I wouldn't lend him a dime. I wouldn't, I never bought him anything that I didn't expect to absolutely not get it back.
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Chapter 7: How did the story end for those involved?
He said, I'm Ross Reback. He goes, Matt Cox is a client of mine. He goes, I'm not a lawyer, though. He said, I'm a literary agent or I'm his agent. He said, yeah, he's in prison. He said, how do you know him? And he looked at him and you got to think that's not the, you know, he looked at him and he went, oh, I had, I actually did some legal work for him. And he said, oh, you did?
And he goes, yeah, yeah, I did. He said, oh, what's your name? He said, oh, my name's, he said, oh, it's Jim. He said, you know what? I'll get you a business card. Hold on a second. Goes to his girlfriend who, because he was sitting with some woman. And so Ross turns to his buddy who owns the bar and
and says um oh you know him because yeah he comes in here all the time with us he comes in here probably two three times a week but they they live around his girlfriend she's got a bunch of money she was a very nice neighborhood right yeah she lives around here they come in all the time he's oh okay he said well he walked outside he said about a minute later the girl gets up and walks outside
And he said, five minutes go by, 10 minutes go by, 15. He walked outside. He's like the guy that they had pulled up in like a Mercedes. It's gone. And he turns around and he goes, what's that guy's name? He goes, he said Jim. What's his name? And he goes, well, he paid with his credit card. Hold on. He pulls out his slip and he goes, Jim Keegan. And he's like, okay, cool. Yeah.
And so he, so then when I talked to Ross, Ross goes, do you know a guy named Jim Keegan? And I was like, yeah, this is the guy. He goes, I Fuck, I knew it was the guy. I knew it. He said, this is what happened. And he tells me the whole thing. And I was like, holy shit. And I said, yeah, bro, you're never going to see him again. He said, I know I'm not. That had been weeks and weeks.
He said, my buddy said he came in three times a week at least.
Sure. He said it had been two weeks. He'd never come back in. You know, it's funny. But he bolted. It's... Paul heard that after he left to go to spring training, Srell showed up at Rotama Racetrack, but he didn't want Noladuka around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he bolted.
But what I was going to say is, Keegan, by the way, if you look it up, he was on probation, got re-arrested because he then opened up a, he opened up a, opened up a, whatever, an office, a law office, saying that he was filing claims for, he was an immigration lawyer taking money for immigration. He was charging $1,500 to $3,500.
That's big money.
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