“The true story of a fraud architect who ran from the FBI across two continents — and what found him when he stopped running.”
Chad Smanjak — Author of
A Memoir of Fraud, Flight, and the Mercy That Found Me
Educated meets Catch Me If You Can, with the spiritual core of When Breath Becomes Air.
From the manuscript
“The morning the FBI came for me, I was already gone.”
Pull quote — The Raid
Chapter 11 — Randburg
“I picked up the pen. I wrote a name that was not mine.”
Pull quote — Randburg
Pretoria — January 2012
“I am with you.”
Pull quote — The Cell
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A federal-grade fraud architect.
Two years as a fugitive.
Three suicide attempts.
One ICE officer.
Three crosses.
The true story Chad Smanjak shouldn’t be alive to tell.
A True Story
GOD’S
FUGITIVE
A Memoir of Fraud, Flight,
and the Mercy That Found Me
Chad Smanjak
A Memoir — Forthcoming
Between 2007 and 2010, Chad Smanjak built a federal-grade securities-fraud operation that ran across four continents and thirty-one offshore entities. The morning the FBI came for him in 2010, he wasn’t home. He ran.
He fled the United States on his own passport. He spent nearly two years as a fugitive in South Africa under his cousin’s identity. He tried to take his own life three times — once on a Manhattan rooftop before he fled, once on the rocks above the Indian Ocean at Ballito, and once in his Ballito hideaway. He was found by something he couldn’t explain.
He came back. He cooperated. He pleaded to one of the eleven counts he’d been indicted on. He served his time. He walked out of a federal facility on a decision that had nothing to do with the law.
Educated meets Catch Me If You Can, with the spiritual core of When Breath Becomes Air.
@GODSFUGITIVE
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GOD’S FUGITIVE
a memoir by Chad Smanjak
Chad Smanjak is a former federal fugitive and the author of God’s Fugitive.
Between 2007 and 2010 he built a multinational securities-fraud operation that moved through thirty-one Panamanian shell entities, accounts in the Cook Islands and Cyprus, and a network that touched four continents.
When the FBI raided his Long Beach home in 2010, he fled the United States on his own passport. He spent nearly two years as a fugitive in South Africa, living under his cousin’s identity. He tried to take his own life three times — once on a Manhattan rooftop before he fled, once on the rocks above the Indian Ocean at Ballito, and once in his Ballito hideaway.
The original federal indictment ran to eleven counts — ten of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He came back voluntarily. He cooperated fully. He pleaded guilty in the Central District of California to a single count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, served his sentence at Taft Correctional Institution, and was released in November 2017.
The six-year fight to remain in the United States that followed resolved in November 2023. That story belongs to a second book.
He writes about what it cost. What he learned. And what found him when he stopped running.
He lives in California, where his daughter Dior lives.
Six conversations he can lead
To book Chad for a conversation, write to bookings@godsfugitive.com
God’s Fugitive is forthcoming. Chad Smanjak is available for print interviews, podcasts, on-camera conversations, and on-the-record reporting. Selected coverage will be posted here as it lands. For media inquiries, see Contact.
Press kit
Author bio, high-res images, key quotes, comparable titles, and contact details for press, speaking, and adaptation inquiries. PDF, approx. 4 pages.
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