Document 941. Filed 02/17/10. United States of America, Plaintiff vs. Frank E. Vennes, Jr., et al., Defendants. (PDF):
ORDER APPROVING AND CONFIRMING THE SALE OF CERTAIN REAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT 3515 SECOND AVENUE SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA AND DIRECTING DELIVERY OF DEED
Upon consideration of THE STIPULATION, together with its Exhibits, by and between Plaintiff United States of America, Defendant Frank E. Vennes, Jr., (“Defendant Vennes”), and Receiver Gary Hansen (the “Receiver”) [Docket No. 932], who stipulate to the approval of the sale of the property located at 3515 2nd Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota (the “Property”), the Court finds:
1. The Property is currently owned by 3515 2nd Avenue South, LLC(“Seller”). Seller is an entity formed by Defendant Vennes to hold title to the Property.
2. The Property is located at 3515 2nd Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
3. The Property is a rectangular shaped lot consisting of a total land area of 8,123.22 square feet. The Property contains a 2.5 story boarding house constructed in 1923. The Property is in need of a substantial rehabilitation and is currently vacant. The City of Minneapolis conducted a Code Compliance Inspection of the Property and noted several deficiencies that must be corrected before the Property may be deemed code compliant and habitable.
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Today we heard from more businessmen about documents forged and deals gone bad.
An assistant buyer who used to work at Circuit City. He testified he didn't sign one of the documents Tom Petters used to borrow money.
Next, businessman Irwin Jacobs was called to testify about a deal that didn't go very well with Petters back in the 1990's.
Greg Bell returned in his white sweater. On direct and indirect examination, Bell talked about what he did when he learned in 2008 that Petters was in deep trouble. He moved millions offshore to trusts in islands all over the world.
Businessman Ted Deikel took the stand next and talked about the deal he had made with Petters in June, 2008. As we have heard from other withnesses, Deikel had a difficult time getting Petters to repay the loan. Petters bounced checks on Deikel and and made a lot of crazy excuses. Deikel received partial payment of the loan but he lost seven and a half million dollars.
The next witness was Petter's nanny Jennifer Wolter who testified that she had not signed one of the documents Petters had used to buy time on his loans.
The next witness was Ray Ross, a retiree living in Arizona. Ross was involved with Charis MInistries when he met Frank Vennes in jail. Ross invested his $491,000 nest egg with Vennes and Vennes invested it in Petters and now it's all gone and Ross and his wife have to live on Social Security.
The final witness of the day was Special Agent Kathy Klug. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dixon asked Kathy Klug to connect each of the counts in the indictment to documents. That part of the Government's case will be finished on Monday and then we will hear the attorneys for Tom Petters make their case.
Defense attorney Jon Hopeman told reporters that no decision has been made about Tom Petters testifying, but that decision is entirely up to Tom Petters.
Tom Petters was arrested for money laundering by the FBI last October and the SEC said there were $3.5 billion in losses for fund of hedge funds in his Ponzi scheme. For now, court proceedings in the Petters criminal case have been sealed - leaving the victims and the public with few answers about who else conspired in this maze of financial crime and abuse of investor confidence. One such person is a reformed convict turned multimillionaire Frank Vennes, who owns a spreads in Jupiter Island and Minnesota. Sources say Vennes met with Palm Beach's Prevost and Harrold several times in 2001-2002 at his Minnesota lake home to discuss how the managers would raise money solely to invest directly into Petters.
The first PB Finance fund was started in 2003 and grew to $250 million. The second fund began in 2004 with assets at the time of its shut down of $850 million - both were promoted by Jonathan Spring who raised institutional money for other big hedge funds such as Carrington Capital. The fund's operating agreements never discuss investing only with Petters. As late as November 2007, Spring sent a letter soliciting a chance to invest more in what were then closed Palm Beach funds. He wrote, "The risks of this strategy are relatively straight-forward and identifiable....risks I have thought carefully about for the past 4 years."
Vennes, Harrold, and Prevost have yet to be charged criminally for their involvement in Petters fraud. However, the MN US Attorney subpoenaed Vennes' emails when the feds reported that Vennes knew about the Petters Fraud back in 2007.
Not sure if Dealbreaker is correct in all it's facts (I pretty sure the two homes it mentions were turned over the receiver), but it does appear Palm Beach Capital may suffer the same fate as Lancelot Investment Management.
