Tom Petters

( Reuters ) - A Minnesota businessman sentenced to 50 years in prison for running a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme lost his bid to overturn his conviction on Friday. Thomas Petters argued that the trial court violated his constitutional rights by preventing him from conducting a full questioning of key prosecution witness Larry Reynolds , a convicted felon and disbarred lawyer in the witness protection program who helped perpetrate the fraud. The trial court sealed Reynolds' witness protection...Read Full Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for convicted U.S. Ponzi schemer Tom Petters on Friday asked an appeals court to send the case back for a new trial, saying they were not able to fully present arguments against some of his accusers. In a brief sent on Friday to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, attorneys for the imprisoned Minnesota businessman argued that the government had prevented them from presenting a complete defense by not allowing details about witness Larry Reynolds...Read Full Story

A federal judge has sentenced a former car wash and record company owner to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role in the $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Minnesota businessman Tom Petters . U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle also ordered on Monday that Michael Catain serve another three years on supervised release, and that he surrender Oct. 20. The 54-year-old Shorewood man pleaded guilty in October 2008 to one count of money laundering conspiracy and testified against Petters as part...Read Full Story

A Chicago area hedge fund manager has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly orchestrated by Minnesota businessman Tom Petters . Forty-five-year-old Gregory Malcolm Bell of Highland Park , Ill., pleaded guilty last October to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors say Bell's hedge fund, Lancelot Investment Management, invested all its money in the Ponzi scheme. He admitted making sham money transfers to make it...Read Full Story

A man who admitted forging 10,000 documents in a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly led by Minnesota businessman Tom Petters has been sentenced to five years in prison. Robert White apologized to fraud victims when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle in St. Paul on Wednesday. White said he and Deanna Coleman , vice president of Petters Co. Inc. , discussed going to the authorities together before the scheme collapsed in 2008. But he says Coleman went to the FBI without him...Read Full Story