The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that John Byors, 50, of Williston, pleaded guilty late this afternoon in United States District Court in Burlington to 16 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, travel fraud and money laundering. Byors entered his plea the day before jury selection was to begin in his criminal case. Chief U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III ordered that Byors remain in jail pending sentencing, which has been set for September 22, 2008.

According to court records, in 1999 or 2000, Byors moved to Vermont from Massachusetts and began attempting to raise funds for a number of marble related ventures he was attempting to get off the ground. Until December 2005, when Byors was arrested, he raised more than $10 million from approximately 100 investors. As general matter, Byors promised to double investors' money within one year. Byors memorialized the investors' loans in a series of promissory notes and security agreements, in which he pledged as collateral various raw blocks of marble that had been extracted from quarries Byors leased. Byors flagrantly overstated the value of the collateral as he tried to induce prospective investors to lend him money.

In the course of his fund raising, Byors made numerous false statements and promises about how he was to use the money he raised. Contrary to Byors promises that he would use the funds for various business-related purposes, Byors in fact used a substantial portion of the money he raised to make partial payments to earlier investors and to support a lavish personal life-style.

Byors' fraudulent scheme burst in December 2005, when he was arrested by federal agents and charged in a criminal complaint. At that time, investigators learned that Byors had defrauded his victims out of approximately $8 million.

Following his 2005 arrest, Byors was released on conditions but his release was revoked in February 2006 when he improperly tried to solicit more money from investors. Byors has remained in jail since that time.

Byors faces up to 20 years of imprisonment on most of the counts to which he pleaded guilty, and fines of up to $1,000,000. His actual sentence will be determined with reference to federal sentencing guidelines. Byors will also be ordered to pay full restitution to his victims, although little of the fraudulently-obtained proceeds has been recovered in the aftermath of Byors' arrest.

This case was investigated by the Burlington offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.

Byors is represented by Bradley Stetler and Maryanne Kampmann. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.