David W. McQueen, $46,000,000 Investment Fraud, Michigan 2010

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – In a shocking turn of events, David W. McQueen, a 43-year-old resident of Byron Center, Michigan, has been found guilty of six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering and three tax counts stemming from a $46,000,000 Ponzi scheme that spanned three years.

The scheme, which affected more than 800 families, preyed upon unsophisticated, often elderly investors. McQueen faces up to 20 years on each fraud count, up to 20 years on some of the money laundering counts (up to 10 years on others) and one year on each tax count.

The evidence at trial showed that McQueen, who made an adequate living in sales, used borrowed funds to invest in a company called Multiple Return Transactions (“MRT”) in 2006. MRT was owned and operated by Jim Clements, who 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.

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.

McQueen created three other funds, International Opportunity Consultants (“IOC”), Diversified Liquid Asset Holdings (“DLAH”) and Diversified Global Finance (“DGF”), that were nothing more than sham corporations designed to raise millions of dollars from investors. McQueen commingled the investor money between his various and purportedly distinct funds and used it to make bogus interest payments and redemption requests to investors, pay commissions to agents that sold the funds on McQueen’s behalf, or simply spend the money.

Recognizing that his scheme would collapse without actual investment success, McQueen placed approximately 30% of the investor funds in a series of highly speculative investments or scams. Unsurprisingly, this effort did not generate significant returns, and many lost all of the funds invested.

To perpetuate his fraud, McQueen sent out monthly or quarterly account statements communicating to investors that their investments were safe and growing. Investors relied on those account statements and believed they accurately depicted the balance in their accounts.

McQueen promised investors that they could liquidate their accounts at any time, but most did not because they believed that their account statements were accurate and that they had made a solid investment.

David W. McQueen, Defendant/respondent REAL full name or legal entity name, was convicted of six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering and three tax counts. He faces up to 20 years on each fraud count, up to 20 years on some of the money laundering counts (up to 10 years on others) and one year on each tax count. The scheme, which affected more than 800 families, preyed upon unsophisticated, often elderly investors.

Exact criminal charges: six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering and three tax counts. City and state: Grand Rapids, Michigan. EXACT DATE with month/day/year: Not specified in the source. Sentence or outcome: Up to 20 years on each fraud count, up to 20 years on some of the money laundering counts (up to 10 years on others) and one year on each tax count. Dollar amounts: $46,000,000.

Dollar amounts where applicable: $46,000,000. Companies, banks, funds, and other legal entities are not involved in this case.

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