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The lawyer for billion-dollar swindler Tom Petters told the jury in Minneapolis that Petters had lost everything he owned, except for the three suits he wore to his trial.
That was lawyer-talk. Technically, it was correct. Petters had lost control of his property to the government. But his assets still were worth hundreds of millions of dollars. For one thing, he had owned Polaroid outright.
By rights, Petters' money should go to the victims of his Ponzi scams and to his creditors. They weren't all wealthy hedge fund managers deserving few of our tears. Many were "little old ladies" and Christian pastors who had been cheated out of their life savings.
Meanwhile, back home in Chicago, goo goos released a study reporting that "Cook County government has been a dark pool of political corruption for more than 140 years." This was not news to me. In fact, I have written books about it.
In direct contrast, Minnesota and other states of the Upper Midwest are supposed to have squeaky-clean government. Yet, the more I looked into the Petters case, the more I thought I must be in Chicago, not Minneapolis.
A ring of professionals—lawyers, accountants, consultants—was conniving to loot Petters' millions. Anything left over, the government likely would seize under asset-forfeiture laws. This was being done legally—indeed, with the active cooperation of federal prosecutors and judges.
Public corruption of this magnitude did not feature the normal lineup of two-bit crooked politicians. The government, in effect, is running its own Ponzi frauds. The story is much bigger than Tom Petters. Nothing less than the constitutional right to due process is at stake.
That is why I decided to write this book.
