Byron Center Man, David W. McQueen's , Conviction And 30-Year Sentence For Ponzi Scheme Upheld On Appeal

          GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan announced today that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction and 30-year sentence of David W. McQueen. On December 3, 2014, McQueen, age 44, of Byron Center, Michigan, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $32,036,997.63 in restitution to his victims and $926,787.00 in restitution to the IRS. McQueen was convicted on May 9, 2014, after a six-week jury trial of six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering, and three tax counts stemming from a massive Ponzi scheme that spanned three years. The scheme affected more than 800 families, and preyed upon unsophisticated, often elderly investors. The Sixth Circuit’s opinion can be found online at http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/16a0033n-06.pdf.

          The Court of Appeals unanimously rejected McQueen’s claims that the government lacked sufficient evidence of his guilt, that he should receive a new trial, and that his sentence was unconstitutional and unreasonable. The Court agreed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s arguments on appeal that there was ample evidence of guilt and that McQueen received a fair trial and a fair sentence.

          The evidence at trial showed that, as with many investment frauds, McQueen likely did not set out to create a criminal enterprise that would result in a financial tragedy for his investors. In 2006, McQueen, who made an adequate living in sales, used borrowed funds to invest in a company called Multiple Return Transactions (“MRT”). MRT was owned and operated by Jim Clements. Clements promised returns of 10% per month or higher to McQueen. After a few months of making such returns, McQueen decided to capitalize on his apparent investment success and invited others to invest through him. McQueen created a company called Accelerated Income Group (“AIG”), through which he promised returns as high as 5-6% to investors. In addition, McQueen recruited insurance agents to sell his investments to their clients. For a short time, AIG was very successful (at least on paper). McQueen used MRT’s promised returns of 10%, to make AIG’s promised returns of 5%. McQueen could meet his 5% obligations to his investors and then keep 5% for himself.

          In mid-2007, MRT stopped making payments and meeting redemption requests. MRT was merely a Ponzi scheme, and their money was gone and would never be recovered. Instead of notifying AIG investors that MRT had failed, however, McQueen continued to tell investors that their money was safe and growing. Without MRT making its monthly payments, McQueen and AIG could not meet their 5% monthly obligations to investors based on investment earnings. Instead, McQueen used the only funds he had available to make promised interest payments – money from new investors.