business

At long last, the government has solved the mystery of Trevor Cook's missing Iraqi dinars.

Since last summer, when Cook's $190 million Ponzi scheme collapsed, investors have pestered investigators about rumors that Cook had hidden millions of dinars, Turkish lira and gold and platinum coins.

A court-appointed receiver looked diligently for the money through crawl spaces and cubby holes at the Van Dusen mansion in Minneapolis, where Cook had his offices until the Ponzi scheme imploded last year. Searches of Cook's Apple Valley home, his island in Canada and elsewhere found no dinars.

A security guard finally found most of the missing loot during a routine locker search last month -- at the Mall of America.

The guard came across it July 24 in a black duffel bag stuffed into East Locker No. 1316, according to a sworn statement filed Friday in federal court by John Tschida, a criminal investigator with the IRS.

On Wednesday, the IRS obtained a warrant to seize 113 gold coins, eight platinum coins, 5,652,150 Iraqi dinars, 18,750,000 Turkish lira and small sums of Chinese, Canadian and Dominican currencies. It's unclear how much the money may be worth, but sources say it probably adds up to at least $100,000. At most, it's a small fraction of the millions lost by Cook's investors. One online currency converter put the value of the Iraqi dinars at about $4,800.

Cook, 38, pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges and was sentenced this week to 25 years in federal prison.

According to Tschida's 20-page affidavit, the duffel bag was put into the locker by Jon Jason Greco, 40, of Bloomington. Cook told investigators that he hired Greco, a Minnesota National Guardsman, to do security work at the Van Dusen for a week before he was deployed to Iraq. He paid Greco 2 million dinars -- about $800 -- figuring he could spend it in Iraq.

Greco returned from Iraq in January and resumed his friendship with Graham Cook, one of Trevor's younger brothers.

"The Minneapolis FBI office has been investigating Trevor Cook for several years," Tschida wrote -- a statement sure to inflame some of the 1,000 or so investors who lost much or all of their life savings in Cook's bogus currency investment.

Federal investigators gave Cook's investment program a pass in early 2009. Former Forest Lake resident Jerry Watkins was pitching it on a Christian shortwave radio network while awaiting sentencing in a separate Ponzi scheme; investigators looked into the matter but concluded that the program appeared legitimate.

Tschida said the FBI got a tip July 21 from Greco's roommate, identified in the affidavit only as "PJ," that Greco was holding assets for Graham and Trevor Cook, including about $80,000 in gold coins.

Greco told investigators that he and his roommate had lived together for about six years but that after he returned from Iraq, they had a falling out. Greco said PJ owed him money for bills.

Greco's ex-roommate could not be reached for comment.

Trevor Cook told investigators in mid-July that Graham Cook had stashed more than $200,000 in cash, and about $300,000 in gold, silver and platinum coins, plus watches and other valuables, which belonged to the receivership.

Investigators seized much of that July 23 from the basement in Eagan where Graham has been living, but found no platinum coins. According to Tschida, Greco was caught on video that afternoon putting the duffel bag into the Mall of America locker.

He said Greco told federal authorities that the contents of the bag were his. He claimed to have earned $30,000 during his deployment to Iraq, and said he spent $20,000 buying up currencies. He claimed that most of the coins were given to him when he was 10 by an uncle who has since died. But the date stamps on about half of the coins show they were minted after his uncle's death, Tschida said.

'Wild stories'

An unidentified dancer at Sheik's strip club in Minneapolis told Tschida that she's known Greco for about 10 years. Tschida said she told him that Greco wasn't a big spender until recently.

She said she and another dancer met him July 22 at Mystic Lake Casino and he gave them $800 to gamble with. After her friend lost the money, she told Tschida, Greco kept feeding $100 bills into the slot machine her friend was playing.

"The dancer stated that Greco has been telling 'wild stories' about cash, coins and Trevor Cook over the past few months," Tschida said.

Cook told investigators that he bought the dinars on the Internet and sold some of the money to the clients of Dale Madison, one of his Minneapolis sales associates. Cook said he got the Turkish lira from Pat Kiley, an associate who promoted his currency investment on his now defunct radio program, "Follow the Money." Cook said that Kiley used the lira as a marketing ploy.

"Kiley would tell listeners that he could make them a Turkish millionaire, all they had to do was send in some personal information and Kiley would send them back an information pack ... and 1 million Lira, making the person a Turkish millionaire. Trevor Cook stated the Lira have no value," Tschida said.

Kiley could not be reached for comment.

Tschida said Cook told him in a recent interview that in July 2009 he and Graham moved nearly $1 million in cash, coins and other valuables into a Burnsville storage locker rented under Graham's name, then later moved the loot into the basement of an Eagan home owned by real estate agent Darren Jorgenson.

Trevor Cook said he paid Jorgenson about $6,000 so that Graham could live in his basement for a year, Tschida said.

Graham Cook could not be reached for comment.

Jorgenson said he met the Cooks in 2005 when he sold an Apple Valley home to Trevor and his wife, Gina. He denied knowing about the loot.

Dan Browning • 612-673-4493