Courts order McQueen to repay investors

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. ( WOOD) - Some of the people who invested money with David Wilson McQueen may be getting some of their money back following two court judgements and a pending lawsuit settlement.

McQueen, a Byron Center man who, the US Attorney alleges, swindled hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars . Court documents say "McQueen and his confederates have deceived investors by establishing shell businesses and presenting them as vehicles for investment in...real estate, natural resources and various technologies..."

The FBI is still reportedly investigating what a US Attorney's filing alleges is his ..."scheme to defraud hundreds of unwitting investors."

He operated from a downtown Grand Rapids office building and used a Pak Mail box to run another business supposedly operating in New Zealand.

Since the day he merely waved at Target 8 investigators in March, a lawsuit in Kent County Circuit Court assessed him $650,000 on behalf of one Kent County woman. And an Indiana court nailed him for $1.5 million.

Norm Westrate was one of the investors looking for a safer place than the stock market to put his retirement money and unfortunately, chose one of McQueen's companies. Now he and more than 400 other victims will share in a proposed settelment with a Kalamazoo insurance firm which was selling McQueen's investments and those of another fraudulent company in California.

The settlement with American Benefit Concepts will recover only part of their money, $4.6 million on total losses of around $58 million.

Ann Arbor attorney Joseph Spiegel said his settlement is with American Benefit Concepts rather than McQueen or the California company because it is still in business and can make the payments from its income over the next eight years.