Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 04/06/2015 6:20:25 AM PDT by Gamecock
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- As he gave generously to Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, David McQueen was fond of saying he was "blessed to be a blessing."
Trouble is, McQueen, the mastermind of a $46 million Ponzi scheme, donated others' money. By the government's tally, it was $300,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Borgula sought its return as part of an ongoing effort to reimburse victims, in a small way, with some of the money taken by McQueen.
The church rejected the request.
"Resurrection Life Church had no knowledge of the source of the funds, nor was it in any way complicit with this donor," The Rev. Bernard Blauwkamp, secretary of the church's Board of Elders, wrote in a letter obtained by MLive and The Grand Rapids Press.
The letter, addressed to Borgula, said elders "have read and considered the detailed information contained in your email of November 26, 2014, regarding the tithe monies and gifts given to the church by Mr. David McQueen. We were saddened to hear the news of his wrongdoing, and pray that God will work in his heart and life and bring repentance.
"We have prayerfully considered your request that the Church return all or part of this donor's gifts and tithe monies, and must respectfully decline to do so."
The U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and IRS are working to find assets that can be used to pay restitution. The government has already seized cash, boats, vehicles and a Florida condominium, which represent a "small fraction of the total loss," the government said in a letter to the victims.
The federal agencies have asked third parties to voluntarily contribute to pay restitution.
"For instance, the government has asked that Resurrection Life Church, which received over $300,000 in stolen funds from David McQueen in the form of donations, return the money to pay restitution," a victim-witness assistant wrote in a notice to victims.
Blauwkamp said inclusion of the church's letter in the notice was "grossly inappropriate" and unfairly singled out the church in an attempt to make it look bad.
"It's unprofessional to include that letter, like we're to blame," he said. "The guy to blame is in jail."
The church has received several calls from victims who received the emailed information via a victims' services e-mail.
Blauwkamp said the church, which opened its books to the FBI, had only minor disagreement with the figures provided by the government. He said that McQueen's donations came in a three-year period, beginning in 2006, when the church was involved in a building project.
"That was six years ago. You don't have money laying around that long. We feel for the victims. It's not like we have a pile (of money) to be distributed," he said.
The church spends its money as it comes in, providing families with food and help with utilities, aiding various agencies in the area and furthering "our Church's mission to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ locally, nationally and around the world," Blauwkamp said.
Noting McQueen was ordered to pay $32 million in restitution, Blauwkamp wondered if others who benefited - from the dealership that sold McQueen a Land Rover, to the IRS for collecting taxes on his ill-gotten gains - would also be asked to ante up.
"What about the $31,700,000? Do they have a list of the other people that did business with him?"
Blauwkamp said the federal government "painted us in a bad light, and I believe unjustly."
McQueen joined the church in 1997 but by 1999 was no longer active. Blauwkamp didn't know him, but that's not unusual in a megachurch.
McQueen said in a biography he was "blessed to be a blessing" -- before anyone realized he was actually robbing investors. He operated perhaps the state's largest Ponzi scheme.
Borgula has called him "one of the worst kinds of financial predators. He's so arrogant he thinks he's infallible."
McQueen, 44, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. He is in a medium-security facility in Oxford, Wisc.
Borgula declined to comment Friday.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles Jr., in a statement to MLive and The Press, said: "The U.S. Attorney's Office must try to return assets stolen from innocent investors as restitution. We requested that various third parties voluntarily reimburse or return funds from David McQueen. We will continue our objective to keep victims apprised of our efforts."
Earlier, Borgula said McQueen left over 800 victims. People mortgaged houses, cashed in IRAs and handed over retirement savings.
McQueen had enlisted legitimate insurance salesmen to invest in his company. Many victims trusted their insurance agents.
McQueen was convicted in a six-week jury trial of multiple mail-fraud and money-laundering charges.
Several others were convicted, too. Trent Francke, who, like McQueen, lived in Byron Center, held the second-highest position in the organization. He took a plea deal and is serving seven years in prison after testifying against McQueen.
You position makes no sense
Does every hotel he stayed at have to return the money he paid with?
I see only idiocy in your comment.
That means you or me actually may owe some money in this case without even knowing it.
Every business he bought anything at would have to “give back” the money he spent with them.
If someone dropped stolen jewelry in the collection plate, would the church keep that too?
I just love this. The Christian way to say "stick it up your keester."
"....we have prayerfully considered....and must respectively decline....." I just love it!
Feds are gonna have to conclusively PROVE the money was stolen and not just some cash they can confiscate because of 'suspicion'....
If the feds/courts thought they had the “right” to the money for the victims, they would have sued the church rather than asked for it.
It's too bad that so many people fell prey to a get-rich quick scheme, but that is not the fault of the church.
Meanwhile, not sure if it applicable, probably not, the statue of limitations on a debt in Michigan is 6 years.
http://credit.about.com/od/statuteoflimitations/g/misol.htm
But thanks to our outstanding Congress, there is no statue of limitations on a debt to the Federal Government:
“Buried deep inside a massive piece of legislation passed by Congress sits a little-noticed passage that, with few exceptions, wipes out any statute of limitation for a debt owed to the federal government.
Thanks to the “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008,” anyone overpaid by a federal agency, at any time in their life, can now be tracked down and put on the hook for debts that are decades old.”
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/us-treasury-irs-statute-limitations-tax-grab-208436421.html#ixzz3WXN3CO6B
Follow us: @nbcchicago on Twitter | nbcchicago on Facebook
I found a blog post about the “church” in question. It’s a snarky and cynical assessment of Resurrection Life Church written by an unbeliever who visited one Sunday. He has some insight those attempting to attract “unchurched seekers” might do well to remember.
Resurrection Life Church
http://blog.freakingawesome.net/2008/01/06/resurrection-life-church/
> Does every hotel he stayed at have to return the money he paid with?
OK, guy robs a bank, walks out onto the street and pays a bum $500 for a pack of cigarettes.
Who does the $500 belong to?
No, in that case the Feds have the car, as indeed they do, and are selling the car to help make restitution to the defrauded parties. If the fraudster spent the money at a hotel, that’s just considered unrecoverable. The hotel rendered services and were paid for them. But if a wealthy church with millions of dollars in the bank received the money, that’s certainly recoverable. Again, this is not breaking new ground, legally. They are going to have to pay this money back.
Guy, have you seen this church? They have the money, or at least other fully fungible dollars.
Answer the questions I asked.
You’re totally right about the 6-year lookback though, that does complicate matters for the defrauded investors.
You’re totally right about the 6-year lookback though, that does complicate matters for the defrauded investors.
On b. If it is proven dirty money, I’d sure as heck not leave it up to this government to return anything to the rightful owners. We all know what happened to the premium bond investors on GM, don’t we? I wouldn’t return ANYTHING to this government.
“No, in that case the Feds have the car”
What if the car was totaled years ago?
And no car holds it’s value. Does the dealer need to make up the difference.
“But if a wealthy church with millions of dollars in the bank received the money, that’s certainly recoverable.”
Hotel or car dealer may be much richer than the church.
You have no consistent argument.
He had a coffer worth $4.5M in the bank for his run for mayor.....I bet ain’t much left now.
Money is fungible and the church may not be legally responsible. I have a feeling that any admission by the church would open it to litigation even a freewill offering fund to reimburse the investors for McQueen’s donations. I also don’t know the timeline of McQueen’s criminal behavior.
Then the government should have to prove it was illegally received, not demand it.
Government hides behind brandishment/threat of power and authority (and inaction by Justice and Legislative oversight) to do all sorts of things contrary to established law. So what?
The difference her is there were no services received. It was a donation to a supposed church.
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