Byron Center man guilty in $46,000,000 Ponzi scheme

Mich. -- A Byron Center man has been convicted in a multi-million-dollar investment scheme, according to the office of US Attorney Patrick Miles Jr. David McQueen, 43, was convicted of six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering, and three tax counts, all stemming from a $46 million Ponzi scheme. He faces up to 20 years on each fraud count, up to 20 years on some of the money laundering charges (and up to 10 years on the others), and a year for each tax count. Authorities say the scheme involving McQueen affected more than 800 families and targeted elderly people especially. 

McQueen apparently did not endeavor to create a criminal enterprise, according to investigators. He used borrowed funds in 2006 to invest in a company called Multiple Return Transactions and saw returns of about 10 percent or more per month. He then invited others to invest in MRT through a company he created, called Accelerated Income Group. He promised AIG investors returns of 5 to 6 percent and even recuirted insurance agents to sell his investments. 

By 2007, MRT (which turned out to be a Ponzi scheme) ran out of money and stopped making payments. Instead of notifying AIG's customers, he recruited more investors, using their money to pay his initial customers. He raised millions of dollars more and created three other funds, commingling the money in all of his funds, making bogus interest payments and redemption requests to investors, paying commissions to agents, and spending money. Authorities estimate he took $100,000 of investor money every month for his personal use. 

He put a little less than a third of the funds at one point into other questionable investments or scams, and almost all of that money was lost. The whole time, he sent investors false account statements. By the summer of 2009, the IRS and FBI executed search and seizure warrants and seized about $430,000 from McQueen's accounts. McQueen then brought the remaining investor funds, about $440,000, back from an account in New Zealand. The US Marshals Service has McQueen in custody. A sentencing date has not been set.