Koco McAboy -

GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) -- Several years after a Byron Center man stole nearly $50 million from unsuspecting investors, the U.S Attorney's Office is trying to reimburse victims.

David Wilson McQueen is serving 30 years in prison after he swindled 800 investors out of about $46 million in a Ponzi scheme. Over the course of three years, investigators said, McQueen collected investments for a failing company and used cash from new investors to make promised interest payments to clients.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has asked the Resurrection Life Church in Grandville to give back $300,000 that McQueen donated to them, and the church declined.

"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," Rev. Bernard Blauwkamp wrote in a letter obtained by 24 Hour News 8.

"The funds were received over a period of time spanning multiple years, and no single donation was extraordinary in size. Our Church is blessed to have a large membership, many of whom who God has blessed with material abundance. Our leadership makes it a point to not focus on the identity of its donors; such knowledge could cause favoritism and affect interpersonal relationships within the Church," the letter continues.

A victim of the Ponzi scheme who didn't want to be identified told 24 Hour News 8 that she believes the church has a moral obligation to return the money.

"It's just not right. People's lives were affected," the victim said. "It [the letter] was very insulting. It didn't seem like it was truthful and it sounded like a little kid saying, 'Finders keepers; we have it, but we're not giving it back.'"

In a weekend phone interview, Rev. Blauwkamp told 24 Hour News 8 he believes it is unfair that the church is "being singled out" and said the church did not know where McQueen's funds were coming from over the years.

Blauwkamp was also upset that the victims received a copy of the letter he sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office, saying they [U.S Attorney's Office] tried to make "the church look bad."

The victim, who said she lost six figures in the scheme, isn't expecting to ever get all of her money back, but believes the church should give something.

"All the wounds are opened up all over again," she said. "First they say he's been sentenced, it's closure, move on and try to look forward. And now it's like, 'Oh, we found a bunch more of your money and the church isn't going to give it back to you.' The bottom line is once they were made aware that these funds were gained illegally, I think many people believe they have some moral obligation to try and help out where they can. If we aren't going to give back the whole $300,000, maybe we can work on returning $100,000, maybe it's going to be over the course of X amount of time."

The U.S. Attorney's Office released this statement to 24 Hour News 8 on Monday:

"The United States Attorney's Office must try and return assets stolen from innocent investors as restitution. We requested that various third parties voluntarily reimburse or return funds received from David McQueen. We will continue our obligation to keep victims apprised of our efforts."

The U.S. Attorney's Office released the following statement on Tuesday:

"We are keeping David McQueen's fraud victims apprised of the status of efforts on their behalf to recover identifiable funds or assets from various third parties. His victims, some of whom lost their life's savings and seek further justice, can share this information. However, the U.S. Attorney's Office is not providing the media with a list of individuals or entities who received proceeds from Mr. McQueen's fraud."