A US businessman convicted of orchestrating a US$3.65 billion Ponzi scheme that included buying Polaroid as a cover was sentenced on Thursday to 50 years in federal prison, authorities said.
Thomas Petters, 52, of Minnesota, was sentenced in a US District Court in St Paul, Minnesota, four months after he was convicted on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.
In handing down the 50-year sentence, the longest jail term ever ordered in a financial fraud case in the state, Judge Richard Kyle said: “I’m not satisfied that if he were released early, he wouldn’t reoffend.”
Following a month-long trial, Petters was convicted on Dec. 2 last year of 10 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five counts of money laundering.
Petters, assisted by others, defrauded and obtained billions of dollars in money and property by inducing investors to provide Petters Company Inc (PCI), a sham company he created in 1994, with funds to purchase merchandise that was to be resold to retailers at a profit, Todd Jones, the US attorney in the District of Minnesota, said in a statement.
“However, no such purchases were made,” he said.
Instead, Petters and his co-conspirators diverted the funds from PCI for other purposes, such as making “lulling” payments to investors, paying off those who assisted in the fraud scheme, and funding businesses owned or controlled by the defendants.
“Petters continued to purchase and operate companies in an effort to maintain the facade of a successful businessman and create a false air of legitimacy that would lure new investors,” using the proceeds of the PCI fraud, Jones said.
The companies he bought included Polaroid, Fingerhut and Sun Country Airlines, which, collectively, became known as Petters Group Worldwide, or PGW, it said.
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