Petters

Susan Carey of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent background story here on the Tom Petters federal fraud prosecution, being handled out of Minnesota. As in so many of the recent Wall Street scandles, there are claims that Petters’ alleged fraud contained “elements” of a classic Ponzi scheme. There are also stories of investment advisors who were sharp enough to steer their clients away from Petters after doing rather rudimentary research. The heart of the charged fraud centers around purportedly phony purchases and sales of surplus audio/video products by Petters’ company–phony in the sense that no actual equipment existed. Several persons and entities have already pled guilty.