The federal government has expanded its investigation of Minneapolis money manager Trevor Cook's $190 million Ponzi scheme to include a number of his former business associates, according to recently unsealed court documents.
Investigators have seized evidence routed through network servers in Golden Valley and in Colorado Springs, seeking information related to at least 21 business entities that may have been involved in his scheme, according to search warrants filed in the case.
Cook pleaded guilty in April to mail fraud and tax evasion charges, admitting he bilked about 1,000 investors -- mostly retirees -- in an international currency investment scheme. He remains in the Sherburne County jail as he awaits sentencing, and is required by his plea agreement to help investigators and a receiver who is trying to locate investor assets.
Court documents unsealed earlier this month show that investigators are targeting e-mails, contact lists, appointments, pictures and file attachments routed through e-mail accounts used by Cook; his younger brother Graham, a computer expert; Tom Richardson, the former chief operating officer at Cook's firm, Oxford Global Advisors; and Jason (Bo) Beckman, a former partner of Cook's who runs an investment advisory firm called the Oxford Private Client Group.
None of them could be reached for comment Tuesday. Beckman's attorney, W. Patrick Judge, declined to comment.
Eileen Rice, the FBI agent who spearheaded the investigation of convicted Minnesota swindler Tom Petters, described the government's wide-ranging and ongoing investigation of the Cook scheme in a 28-page application for two search warrants in late May.
Her narrative shows how Cook threw his money around to buy favors he needed to keep the scheme afloat, and when it finally faltered, opted to keep his investors in the dark even as he continued taking their cash.
Gary Saunders, a California attorney and business partner of Cook's, told investigators in January that he met Cook in March 2008 and sold him two Panama condominiums that were under development, Rice said. Cook agreed a few months later to become a 50 percent owner with Saunders and another partner in a Panama City hotel and casino development, and made payments of $1.1 million a month until his money began to run out about a year later.