Twin Cities Business Litigation Blog : Minneapolis Business Litigation Lawyer & Attorney : Gavin P. Craig Law Firm : St. Paul, Twin Cities, Minnesota MN

When Tom Petters was convicted in US District court of multiple counts of fraud, I wondered why a supposedly smart person would resort to fraud. Bernie Madoff essential did the same thing. They paid the early investors with the money invested by later investors. Petters created phoney documents to show business activity that was a fiction, and was able to get other people to invest in his enterprise. Both Petters and Madoff became very wealthy, with other peoples money. Now they are both enjoying life at taxpayers expense.

What troubles me, besides the very fact that they would defraud innocent people, is that they were operating a scheme that could not succeed in the long run. Madoff's operation was surprisingly long lived, but wouldn't have lasted quite so long had the regulatory agencies done their jobs. But these schemes can not be successful in the long term. You can't keep bring in more money to pay off prior investors. Eventually you will run out of willing investors, and the truth will come out.

So, why would supposedly smart people do this? The only answer is that they were not smart enough to figure out that the fraud had a limited life, or they planned to leave the country. In the Petters case, Star Tribune reporters David Phelps and Aimee Blanchette had an interesting interview with the foreman of the Petters jury. In the end, Petters own e-mails were his undoing.

Since Petters contended that he was innocent, there was no revelation about the why, and what he would do once it became clear he was going to be caught. However, most of the money is still missing. Petters isn't talking, so perhaps he had plans but he was not able to leave before he was arrested. We probably will never know.
 

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The Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer has published a couple articles about avoiding Internet Fraud. The tips come from the FBI, and are very telling. The advise is good, and should make us all more cautious. This list is worth a few minutes to read. It is almost impossible to recover funds stolen through internet fraud. The perpetrators are many times overseas, and you will not even be able to determine which country.

The old saying: If it sounds to good to be true, it isn't! Fraud takes on many forms and the victims range from the sophisticated to the not so sophisticated.

In these days of economic hardship for many people, I think there is a tendency of some people to believe what they perceive as a good deal or a way to make money. The people that invested with Bernard Madoff were very happy that their investments continued to do well while the rest of the market was not doing so well. Here is an interesting article about the lawyers and the litigation started as the investors pick at the bones of the carcass that was Madoff's financial castle. If everything is going well, why look too hard.

Tom Petters' investors believed what was put in front of them. It all sounded good. But it wasn't and in the end the investments were fictions. remember just because it is written down does not make the representations true.

The smartest people can be victims. But we don't have to be.

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I’ve written about the Petters matter a couple times before, here and here.The latest report raises an interesting question. An investor group is challenging the appointment of a trustee that they say will favor victims instead of creditors. That's an interesting conflict. Who should have priority? If both parties are innocent, who has a priority. 

So, in the abstract the question is interesting. However, in this case the complaining creditor, The Richie Group, reportedly loaned the Petter’s Group money at interest rates of 80% on one loan and 362.1% on another. We should all have such a deal.

At those rates it would not take long to recover the amount of the principal, even though they probably didn't account for the payments as reducing the principal.

The only rational reason that a company would borrow money at rates that high is because they can’t get access to the normal capital markets. That normally means that the borrower is in financial trouble. That also means the lender knew these were high risk loans. So why would they get a priority? The Richie group had a choice whether or not to loan money to a company with a weak balance sheet.

The victims on the other hand were misled. I think the victims have a much better argument for a priority than the Richie Group, or any similarly situated lender.

Who knows how a Trustee will see it, or allocate what assets can be found.  I would guess that the facts of the Richie Group loan will influence the outcome; or I at least hope so.  Greed should not be rewarded. 

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Petters and his company, Petters Co. Inc. (PCI) was the apparent target of federal law enforcement this past week, and all reports indicate that the authorities were looking for evidence of a massive fraud. Reports indicate that the alleged fraud could exceed $2-Billion. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an extensive story on the raid by law enforcement authorities and the allegations.

Allegedly, the fraud scheme lured investors by claiming that their money was secured by merchandise purchased from certain wholesale vendors and sold to Wal-Mart, Sam’s club and other retailers. According to the FBI, these were all sham transactions; the purchase and sales orders were fictitious, and the wholesale vendors were shell companies allegedly used to launder funds to PCI.

The affidavit used for the search warrant was unsealed on Friday and states that that an unnamed cooperating witness wore a wire in meetings with Petters and his associates. The wire informant will apparently plead guilty to conspiracy. Petters allegedly, “talks about fleeing the country and creating fabricated defenses if the fraud scheme is discovered.” One of his associates is allegedly on tape as saying that the amount of the fraud could exceed $2 billion.

Recent reports indicate that the number of fraud indictments are up considerably across the country. What is going on?

I was also sorry to read about Tom Petters because in my opinion, the airline he owes (Sun Country) is the best ride to and from Minneapolis. I fear that these events will cut off needed funding to the airline.

I am always amazed that the people committing business fraud (and I am not prejudging Petters) always assume that they will not get caught. This seems to be an irrational belief that sophisticated victims are never going to notice.

We will watch the developments with interest.

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