Petters Group Worldwide was an American diversified company based in

Minnetonka, Minnesota Minnetonka ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about west of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 53,781. Minnetonka is th ...

that was turned into a $3.65 billion

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

by its founder and CEO,

Tom Petters Thomas Joseph Petters is a former American businessman and chairman and CEO of Petters Group Worldwide, a company which stole over $2 billion in a Ponzi scheme. He was convicted of massive business fraud in 2009 and is now imprisoned at the Unit ...

. It had 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 companies, of which it actively managed 20, with offices in North America,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

.Nicole Muehlhausen
BIO: Tom Petters
, KSTP.com, September 24, 2008, Accessed October 8, 2008. Among its assets were Sun Country Airlines, Petters Warehouse Direct, and the remnants of Polaroid. Petters Group Worldwide had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2007.Liz Fedor
Sun Country files for bankruptcy
''Star Tribune'', October 6, 2008, Accessed October 8, 2008. On September 24, 2008, its headquarters and the homes of its top executives and some associated businesses were raided by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Wiretaps Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

based on information gleaned from a confidential co-conspirator are alleged to detail the existence of a $2 billion investment fraud. The allegations include creating phony purchase orders from

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's C ...

and BJ's to create the appearance of tremendous sales of merchandise. CEO

is the central figure in the investigation. A federal court appointed Doug Kelley, a lawyer, as receiver for the Petters companies, excluding bankrupt Sun Country. On October 13, 2008, Petters Group Worldwide filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On December 2, 2009, Tom Petters was convicted on all counts related to this Ponzi scheme. On April 8, 2010, Thomas J. Petters was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for all counts related to running the Ponzi scheme. In early November 2010, the

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapo ...

attorney's office filed drug possession charges against former Petters Group General Counsel David Baer, based on a safe full of illegal drugs under his office desk allegedly found by federal agents during the September 24, 2008 raid. Baer subsequently received three years' criminal probation for three felony drug convictions. He also received three years' probation from the Minnesota Supreme Court pursuant to a complaint from the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility.

References

{{Scams and confidence tricks 2008 in economics Companies based in Minnetonka, Minnesota Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 Corporate scandals Criminal investigation Great Recession Pyramid and Ponzi schemes