Owner ordered to repay investors

When a retired professor made the decision to invest in a company run by his friend of 20 years, he had no reason to think it was illegitimate.

Then, Max Keeler, a Columbia resident, lost $250,000 to his friend Bill McNeely.

“It was everything we had,” he said. “I never thought a man would do that to me that I knew for all these years.”

Now McNeely has been ordered by the 13th Circuit Court to pay $2.3 million to repay Keeler and 42 other investors and cover state penalty fees. Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton ordered a default judgment against McNeely last week after McNeely had not responded to the lawsuit.

In February, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon brought a consumer protection lawsuit against McNeely, his now-separated wife, Gail Wilkerson, business president Craig Swoboda and the six related companies that McNeely and Swoboda ran.

The lawsuit claims the defendants stole investors’ money from company accounts and lied to investors about how their funds were being spent, stealing over $2 million since 1999. The lawsuit against Wilkerson, Swoboda and the companies, meanwhile, will continue because the two have responded to the suit.

Scott Holste, spokesman for Nixon, said that the attorney general’s office would do its best to see that McNeely pays.

“We will work to try and make certain that this judgment is satisfied, but it will be challenging,” he said.

McNeely was responsible for recruiting investors for the scheme, in which the companies said they were working to develop a cashless vending technology to allow vending machines to accept credit cards and magnetic hotel room keys using a black box.

At first, investors trusted McNeely. Keeler said McNeely recruited his friends — everyone from former bank presidents to professors and investors — from throughout the Midwest. Keeler, who started investing money in 1999, said he was one of the first major investors.

“Originally, this wasn’t a fly-by-night thing,” said Keeler, who met McNeely when both men lived in Nebraska and still thinks cashless vending is a good idea. “It’s not rocket science,” Keeler said.

Michael Sheers, an Ohio engineer who was hired to develop the technology, said in court documents the project is dead because he no longer works for the defendants. Without his help, he said, they would not be able to manufacture the product.

Keeler said some investors did legwork for the company, researching product development and distribution.

Court documents stated that McNeely has sent newsletters to his investors via e-mail since 1999, repeatedly promising that the black box was only 45 to 90 days away from mass production and big profits.

Keeler said he became suspicious of the situation when McNeely and Wilkerson’s lifestyles underwent a dramatic change.

“He (used to live) in a duplex, and then suddenly he’s living in a home that has a swimming pool,” Keeler said. “That thing looked like a museum. I was always led to believe (the money) came from the family, but it came from our profits.”

Between 2000 and 2004, McNeely and Wilkerson took at least $694,000 out of company accounts, either depositing it in their personal accounts or using it to pay credit card bills, according to court documents.

Court documents stated that, eventually, the defendants solicited investments for the sole purpose of paying off lawsuits filed by some minor investors, who realized the scheme was bad and took action. McNeely never told new investors that the company faced lawsuits.

“I misrepresented the company because I had to do it,” McNeely said in court documents. “They would not invest.”

Keeler said despite the judge’s ruling, he doubts that investors will see their money again because McNeely — who has abandoned his house in Columbia — probably can’t pay them back.

“I don’t think he’s got any money,” Keeler said.

Keeler, who is facing health problems but lacks the funds to repair his broken-down car, said he is angry, but doesn’t hate McNeely.

“Bill was a good friend to the people involved, most of the time,” he said. “I rely upon a friend to be telling the truth.”