State: 400 investors lost $50M in scams

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Three West Michigan companies and a California firm cost consumers about $50 million in alleged scams, according to state regulators.

At the center of it is David Wilson McQueen, who ran several investment companies, including Diversified Global Finance and Diversified Liquid Asset Holdings.

The Byron Center man was selling his schemes through American Benefits Concepts, a Kalamazoo firm that also was selling an alleged scam product created by a California company.

Now, the state Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation has ordered all four companies to stop selling unregistered securities.

The deals were "allegedly fraudulent real estate, ethanol, hedge fund and short-term loan investment scams," the regulators said.

Ever since the FBI began a criminal investigation and the alleged misdeeds became public last fall, those companies reportedly have ended such operations.

But the state is saying there are 400 investors who have lost $50 million in these schemes. And there were warning signs victims may have missed, regulators said.

One, the schemers didn't hand out any risk disclosures or financial statements to potential investors. Also, they provided no documentation showing that they were registered with the state.

Individuals involved could go to prison for 10 years for investment law violations.