Nov 10, 2009 1:17 pm US/Central
Trial Tapes Reveal Petters At End Of His Rope
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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The recording was taped on Sept. 9, 2008, one day after Deanna Coleman, the key whistleblower in the case, went to the state attorney's office. (File)
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Tom Petters, 51, the founder of Petters Group Worldwide is charged with fraud in an alleged multimillion-dollar investment scheme that prosecutors say spanned 14 years.
Sherburne County Jail
More explosive testimony in the trial of Tom Petters on Tuesday as jury members heard Petters crying on a secretly recorded conversation.
The Twin Cities businessman is accused of swindling investors out of billions of dollars in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. Jury members heard from people who say they lost millions of dollars. They also heard a secret tape recording that gave them a clearer picture of what was going on as the alleged scheme began to crumble.
The recording was taped on Sept. 9, 2008, one day after Deanna Coleman, the key whistleblower in the case, went to the state attorney's office.
The conversation involves Tom Petters, Coleman and two other Petters executives, Bob White and Jim Wehmhoff. The four of them are discussing what they're going to do. The auditors are coming and they don't have the documents they need to validate their business. There's a sense of panic and they know they're in trouble.
Coleman tells Petters repeatedly that she doesn't want to be involved in lying to the auditors; she tells him she's done.
Petters said he understands and then said, "I will take ever f---ing bullet I can. I think you think I am kidding."
The conversation continues and White said he'll talk to the auditors and try to keep them afloat.
Then you hear Petters tell them all, "It hasn't been the truth for a long time and we're trying to get out of a bad position. My heart aches about it 24 hours a day. OK?"
He asks them to rally together to change things. The conversation comes to a close shortly after Petters said, "We haven't laughed about it. We use to laugh every time we beat the system. What did we get into?"
Then you hear silence on the recording and then Petters crying.
After the tape was played, the prosecution called investors to the stand. Both Jim Granat of Chicago and Cord Christensen of Boise, Idaho, testified that they invested millions of dollars in Petters company believing they were funding purchases of electronics to be sold at big box stores.
Both lost millions of dollars in the Ponzi scheme. Granat and Christensen said they had no idea what was going on in Petters' company until the feds raided Petters' business. Both told the jury they were reassured by Deanna Coleman and Tom Petters that the investments were good.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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