GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - A Byron Center man accused of using a ponzi scheme to take more than $800,000 from investors will spend six years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say James Wiederhold, 39, and two men from Florida created the Atlas Fund. Investigators say they promised investors extraordinary returns on short term, high interest loans to desperate companies.
Instead prosecutors say they paid off their own debts.
Along with the prison sentence, Wiederhold must pay back his victims a total of $827,000.