Tom Petters gets 50 years

Tom Petters gets 50 years

Excerpt:

Tom Petters, the onetime larger-than-life Twin Cities businessman, was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison for his role as mastermind of a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme, one of the largest in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle said Petters, 52, deserved the long sentence because his crimes destroyed the lives of many investors and damaged the underpinnings of the financial system. It could well be a life term for Petters.

"This was a massive fraud and the defendant's involvement in the fraud was front and center," Kyle said.

Others were involved, the judge added, but "this would not have happened but for his direction and his concurrence with it." Kyle said he didn't believe Petters' testimony at the trial.

Petters stood impassive as the sentence was imposed, and as the judge explained he must serve 85 percent of it before he is eligible for release. Barring a successful appeal, it means Petters would be in prison into his 90s.

Moments earlier, Petters apologized to his family, friends and former employees who have stood by him, more than 50 of whom wrote supportive letters to the judge asking for mercy. He specifically apologized to his daughter, two sons and their two mothers.

"I won't have enough time in my lifetime to thank them enough," Petters said.

He asserted that he tried to cooperate with the government all along, a claim that was rejected as false by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dixon.

"This is the largest fraud in Minnesota history. Its effects, its devastation can not be overstated," said Dixon, chief of the white collar crime division in the U.S. Attorney's office for Minnesota.

Comment: In my view, justice served!