This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
An Orem man who was scheduled to plead guilty to charges related to an alleged $28 million Ponzi scheme declined to do so at a federal court hearing on Tuesday.
Events had arisen that caused Chad Roger Deucher to not enter a guilty plea, his attorney, Matthew Howell, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells.
Howell did not specify what had occurred to cause Deucher to change his mind.
Wells set a trial to begin on Nov. 7.
A federal grand jury indicted Deucher, 43, in May on 18 charges of wire fraud and one count of fraud in the sale of securities.
Investors put in about $28 million into Deucher's real estate investment company, called Marquis Properties, and 170 of them lost about $16 million, according to the indictment.
Deucher and Richard Clatfelter of Arizona, the Marquis executive vice president, also were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January.
The lawsuit alleged Deucher sent $376,000 of investors' funds to an account controlled by his wife and used $84,320 from an investor for a mortgage on his personal residence.
Deucher allegedly promised returns of up to 22 percent — and monthly interest rates as high as 12 percent — to entice investors into Marquis Properties, which he claimed was staffed by experienced property professionals who invested in buying and fixing up high quality properties that generated cash flow.
But the indictment alleged Deucher failed to disclose that property Marquis offered as collateral was not owned by the company and was encumbered with other obligations, nor did he disclose that it was insolvent and that payments to investors were coming from new investors.