An Orem man who admitted to soliciting millions of dollars of investments in his insolvent real estate company, then using the money for payments to other investors and for his own living expenses, was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison.
Chad Roger Deucher also must pay more than $16.5 million to the victims he cheated in the Ponzi scheme — which began about March 2010 and continued to about February 2016 — under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge David Nuffer.
Deucher, 44, pleaded guilty in April to one count of securities fraud. As part of a plea deal, 18 counts of wire fraud were dismissed.
According to an April 2016 indictment, investors put about $28 million into Deucher’s real estate investment company, called Marquis Properties, and 170 of them lost about $16 million.
Deucher admitted in a written statement that he told investors the investments were safe, low risk or risk-free because they were secured by a deed of trust on property wholly owned by Marquis. The properties offered as collateral, though, were not owned by Marquis, were substantially encumbered or were in uninhabitable or blighted condition, according to the statement.
He also claimed that returns were the result of “positive investment performance,” Deucher said, but in fact, “I paid new investors with old investor money (i.e. I made Ponzi payments to new investors.”
In his plea bargain, Deucher also agreed to resolve a lawsuit filed against him on Jan. 19, 2016, by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The terms of the resolution include disclosing the location of all funds and assets he owns, as well as any assets that were sold after the suit was filed.