Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
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 was imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Amid mounting criminal investigations, Petters resigned as his company's CEO on September 29, 2008. He was convicted of numerous federal crimes for operating Petters Group Worldwide as a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme and received a 50-year federal sentence.
Petters was raised with six siblings in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He worked at the tailor, fur and fabric shop founded by his great-grandfather and operated by his family for over 100 years. In 1973, while still in high school, he started Ear Electronics, a mail-order stereo company aimed at college students. Petters completed only one semester of college before dropping out to pursue a career. In the early 1980s, Petters worked in Colorado as a regional manager at an electronics store chain; when that business went bankrupt, he purchased five of its locations in Colorado and Kansas.
In 1988, Petters moved back to Minnesota and founded Amicus Trading, a wholesale brokerage; the name was later changed to The Petters Company, and it marketed consumer merchandise. In 1995 he started Petters Warehouse Direct to sell closeout, overstock and bankrupt company merchandise from a store in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and later in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. In 1998, he moved online to sell discounted merchandise through redtag.com, operated by RedTag Inc.; by 2000 he sold his Petters Warehouse Direct stores to focus on his online business, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He teamed up with direct-mail merchandise company Fingerhut Companies Inc. in 2001 to start a new online store, Redtagbiz.com, which reported sales of $1 billion per year at one point.
Between 1998 and 2008, Petters created a series of investment funds through which he raised in excess of $4 billion through a variety of Ponzi schemes. These fund family names included Arrowhead, Lancelot, Palm Beach and Stewardship. Through these funds, Petters perpetrated the third-largest hedge fund fraud case in U.S. history. Petters used these funds to finance his big box and other acquisitions. He then fabricated retail orders from those acquisitions and used them as collateral to borrow more money through the funds.
When Fingerhut's owner, Federated Department Stores, decided to sell or close the company in 2002, Petters teamed with former Fingerhut chairman Ted Deikel to buy the Fingerhut name, customer list, and buildings in St. Cloud, Minnetonka, and Plymouth, Minnesota and Tennessee. The acquisition closed in June 2002, and all of Petters's operations moved into Fingerhut's former headquarters in Minnetonka. Deikel assumed direction of Fingerhut Direct Marketing Inc., which created catalogs, and Petters operated Fingerhut Fulfillment, based at a St. Cloud distribution center. The new Fingerhut restarted with online and catalog sales in November 2002. In April 2003, The Petters Group, with two minority investors, purchased uBid. The same month, Fingerhut Direct Inc. announced it had obtained a $100 million line of credit to finance inventory and receivables. In 2003, Petters invested in Nazca Solutions, whose CEO was Ted Mondale. Deikel sold his interest in Fingerhut in 2004.
In January 2005, Petters Group Worldwide purchased the Polaroid brand for $426 million, with plans to use it on consumer electronics and new technologies. In 2006, Petters Group Worldwide acquired Sun Country Airlines. Petters Group Worldwide became a diverse holding company with 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 companies, of which it actively managed 20. With offices in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe, it had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2007.
Circa 2008, the FBI began investigating Petters for his role in a fraud scheme involving more than $100 million in investments. On September 24, 2008, federal investigators raided the Petters headquarters in Minnetonka and searched Tom Petters' Wayzata home. Documents released by the FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies noted that they were seeking evidence of a scheme to lure investors into funding a company based on tens of millions of dollars in purchases and sales that never occurred. The documents noted that a witness associated with Petters and his company came forward with documents and other information, and later wore a hidden microphone and recorded several conversations involving Petters and others who carried out the fraud. The affidavit alleges that Petters repeatedly admitted to the fraud scheme of providing false information to investors in the tapes; in addition, Petters admitted to falsifying his tax returns. On September 29, he resigned as the head of Petters Group Worldwide.
On October 3, Petters was arrested at his home in Wayzata. He was denied bail after prosecutors produced documents that alleged Petters had encouraged another person involved with the case to leave the country, that Petters had stated that he regretted turning over his passport, and that he had previously spoken about fleeing the country if the fraudulent scheme were discovered. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Hub AI
Tom Petters AI simulator
(@Tom Petters_simulator)
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 was imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Amid mounting criminal investigations, Petters resigned as his company's CEO on September 29, 2008. He was convicted of numerous federal crimes for operating Petters Group Worldwide as a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme and received a 50-year federal sentence.
Petters was raised with six siblings in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He worked at the tailor, fur and fabric shop founded by his great-grandfather and operated by his family for over 100 years. In 1973, while still in high school, he started Ear Electronics, a mail-order stereo company aimed at college students. Petters completed only one semester of college before dropping out to pursue a career. In the early 1980s, Petters worked in Colorado as a regional manager at an electronics store chain; when that business went bankrupt, he purchased five of its locations in Colorado and Kansas.
In 1988, Petters moved back to Minnesota and founded Amicus Trading, a wholesale brokerage; the name was later changed to The Petters Company, and it marketed consumer merchandise. In 1995 he started Petters Warehouse Direct to sell closeout, overstock and bankrupt company merchandise from a store in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and later in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. In 1998, he moved online to sell discounted merchandise through redtag.com, operated by RedTag Inc.; by 2000 he sold his Petters Warehouse Direct stores to focus on his online business, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He teamed up with direct-mail merchandise company Fingerhut Companies Inc. in 2001 to start a new online store, Redtagbiz.com, which reported sales of $1 billion per year at one point.
Between 1998 and 2008, Petters created a series of investment funds through which he raised in excess of $4 billion through a variety of Ponzi schemes. These fund family names included Arrowhead, Lancelot, Palm Beach and Stewardship. Through these funds, Petters perpetrated the third-largest hedge fund fraud case in U.S. history. Petters used these funds to finance his big box and other acquisitions. He then fabricated retail orders from those acquisitions and used them as collateral to borrow more money through the funds.
When Fingerhut's owner, Federated Department Stores, decided to sell or close the company in 2002, Petters teamed with former Fingerhut chairman Ted Deikel to buy the Fingerhut name, customer list, and buildings in St. Cloud, Minnetonka, and Plymouth, Minnesota and Tennessee. The acquisition closed in June 2002, and all of Petters's operations moved into Fingerhut's former headquarters in Minnetonka. Deikel assumed direction of Fingerhut Direct Marketing Inc., which created catalogs, and Petters operated Fingerhut Fulfillment, based at a St. Cloud distribution center. The new Fingerhut restarted with online and catalog sales in November 2002. In April 2003, The Petters Group, with two minority investors, purchased uBid. The same month, Fingerhut Direct Inc. announced it had obtained a $100 million line of credit to finance inventory and receivables. In 2003, Petters invested in Nazca Solutions, whose CEO was Ted Mondale. Deikel sold his interest in Fingerhut in 2004.
In January 2005, Petters Group Worldwide purchased the Polaroid brand for $426 million, with plans to use it on consumer electronics and new technologies. In 2006, Petters Group Worldwide acquired Sun Country Airlines. Petters Group Worldwide became a diverse holding company with 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 companies, of which it actively managed 20. With offices in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe, it had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2007.
Circa 2008, the FBI began investigating Petters for his role in a fraud scheme involving more than $100 million in investments. On September 24, 2008, federal investigators raided the Petters headquarters in Minnetonka and searched Tom Petters' Wayzata home. Documents released by the FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies noted that they were seeking evidence of a scheme to lure investors into funding a company based on tens of millions of dollars in purchases and sales that never occurred. The documents noted that a witness associated with Petters and his company came forward with documents and other information, and later wore a hidden microphone and recorded several conversations involving Petters and others who carried out the fraud. The affidavit alleges that Petters repeatedly admitted to the fraud scheme of providing false information to investors in the tapes; in addition, Petters admitted to falsifying his tax returns. On September 29, he resigned as the head of Petters Group Worldwide.
On October 3, Petters was arrested at his home in Wayzata. He was denied bail after prosecutors produced documents that alleged Petters had encouraged another person involved with the case to leave the country, that Petters had stated that he regretted turning over his passport, and that he had previously spoken about fleeing the country if the fraudulent scheme were discovered. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.