On the afternoon of February 1, 2023, Richard Myre of Belle Plaine drove his black Ford F-150 to a parking lot at the France Place business center in Bloomington, Minnesota, near the interchange of France Avenue and Interstate 494. He waited. Shortly after 4:15 p.m., Dale Dahmen, 55, and his son Dominick Dahmen, 25, arrived from Buffalo in a minivan, got into Myre’s truck, and sat down to discuss the investment fund the three men had built together. Ninety minutes later, Myre drew a handgun and shot Dale Dahmen twice in the head. He then struggled with Dominick and shot him seven times. He turned the gun on himself last.
What the three men had gathered to discuss was the collapse of Spartan Trading Company, LLC, an unregistered investment fund they had operated since 2019 by collecting $3.7 million from dozens of investors in small communities across the Twin Cities region, never meaningfully investing it, and quietly withdrawing nearly $2 million for themselves. On April 13, 2026, a federal court in Minnesota entered the final judgments that close the SEC’s civil enforcement record against their estates.
The Promise Spartan Trading Company Made to Investors in Pierz and Belle Plaine
Spartan Trading was not a registered investment fund. It had no regulatory standing, no licensed personnel, and no verifiable trading infrastructure. What it had was a pitch: Myre would pool investor money, trade stocks actively on their behalf, and split the profits evenly with each participant. The Dahmens served as promoters, signing up investors from communities including Pierz and Belle Plaine, towns where trust in local relationships often substitutes for financial due diligence.
Investors deposited funds directly into a bank account Myre controlled. Myre signed every check drawn on the account. From 2019 through 2023, according to the SEC’s complaint, Spartan Trading raised over $3.7 million from dozens of investors, many of whom contributed retirement savings, inheritances, or funds accumulated over a lifetime of work. One couple invested more than $100,000. They later had to sell their home and move out of state to be closer to family.
The False Statements That Kept Investors Committed While the Money Disappeared
Rather than trading, Myre let investor funds accumulate in Spartan’s accounts while he and the Dahmens withdrew from the pool regularly. The SEC alleged that Spartan engaged in very little investment activity and that the trades it did make typically lost money. To prevent investors from withdrawing or asking questions, Myre issued monthly account statements that reported consistent positive returns.
Those statements were false. They listed opening balances, monthly profits, and withdrawal amounts in the format of a credible brokerage account summary. Investors who received them had no way to independently verify the figures against actual market positions, because no such positions existed in any meaningful volume. Some investors, reading the statements and believing Spartan was profitable, added more money to the fund. The SEC described the conduct as Myre misleading investors to secure initial investments and then lying to retain them.
Over the life of the fund, Myre withdrew over $1.1 million for himself. Dale Dahmen received approximately $649,000. Dominick Dahmen received $173,113. Together, the three men extracted more than $1.9 million of the $3.7 million raised, leaving an enterprise that was, in the SEC’s assessment, slowly eaten away from the inside while investors continued to receive paperwork suggesting growth.
How the Scheme Began to Unravel and the Meeting That Ended in Three Deaths
By late 2022, Spartan Trading’s internal contradictions had become difficult to manage. Investors were asking questions that falsified statements could no longer answer. Myre and the Dahmens began meeting to discuss the fund’s organization and trading activities. The February 1 meeting at the France Place parking lot was one such gathering. Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said publicly that the men’s financial dealings appeared to be what led to the conflict inside the truck. Ten shell casings were recovered. Myre’s was the only gun found at the scene.
After news of the deaths reached investors, calls began arriving at both the Bloomington Police Department and the SEC. The department said it would not investigate financial crimes directly but would forward complaints to federal authorities. When the SEC moved to freeze Spartan Trading’s remaining assets, investigators found less than $6,000 in a Bank of America account and approximately $400 in a TD Ameritrade account. The $3.7 million was essentially gone.
The Final Judgments Entered in April 2026 Against Three Estates
The SEC filed its civil complaint in the District of Minnesota on June 29, 2023, and obtained an emergency asset freeze the following day. The case proceeded against the estates of all three men, as well as against Spartan Trading itself. On April 13, 2026, the court entered the final judgments that close the litigation.
The amended default judgment against Spartan Trading orders it to pay disgorgement plus prejudgment interest totaling $1,319,823.02, of which up to $695,000 is owed jointly and severally with the Myre Estate under the consent judgment entered against that estate. The default judgment against the Dale Dahmen Estate orders disgorgement of $648,747.15 plus $51,034.69 in prejudgment interest. The SEC dismissed charges against the Estate of Dominick Dahmen, whose $173,113 withdrawal reflected his lesser role as a promoter rather than a principal in the scheme. Spartan Trading is permanently enjoined from violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Conclusion
Spartan Trading was a fraud built for communities where people invest based on familiarity, not prospectuses. The investors of Pierz, Belle Plaine, and the surrounding towns were given monthly statements that looked professional and numbers that looked reassuring, while the money they contributed was steadily withdrawn by the three men they trusted. When the scheme could no longer hold together, one of those men drove to a parking lot with a gun. The courts closed the civil record on April 13, 2026. The Bank of America account had $6,000. The investors’ retirement savings did not come back.
