A 78-year old Sugarcreek man will be going to prison for a while for bilking investors and businesses out of millions.

Monroe L. Beachy was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison for operating a scheme in which he defrauded 2,700 businesses and people, many of them Amish, out of more than $16.8 million, federal officials announced today.

Beachy pleaded guilty last year to one count of mail fraud.

Beginning in or about 1990 and continuing through in or about June 2010, Beachy represented to investors that money deposited with his investment company, A&M Investments, would be safe and would secure a positive rate of return.

“This was fraud on a massive scale,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “This defendant took advantage of people’s trust in him and squandered the life savings of hundreds upon hundreds of families.”      

Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cleveland office, said: “Thousands of investors entrusted their life savings to the integrity of Mr. Beachy’s investment business. Unfortunately, he violated this trust over and over again.”