Cook victims: Time is money

A group of 13 burned investors met with the top federal white-collar crime prosecutor in Minnesota on Monday in an effort to postpone the July 26 sentencing hearing for Minneapolis money manager Trevor Cook, arguing that investigators need more time to look for their cash.

The investors say they don't believe Cook has cooperated fully with a court-appointed receiver seeking to locate and repatriate the money he took from them, ostensibly for a currency investment program run through a Swiss firm called Crown Forex AG.

They say that Cook, 37, might have faced life in prison if he'd been indicted in the $190 million-plus Ponzi scheme, which federal prosecutors say is the second-largest in Minnesota history after the $3.65 billion scam run by convicted swindler Tom Petters.

The investors say that Cook cut a great bargain for himself by pleading guilty to just two charges with a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, and they worry that once he is sentenced, the government will lose its leverage over him. They pressed the government to put Cook through a lie detector test, which they say is scheduled for Tuesday.

The receiver, R.J. Zayed of Minneapolis, also has sought a delay in the sentencing. Zayed wrote an e-mail to investor Ken Locklin of Fredericksburg, Texas, explaining that he asked Friday for a postponement "so that we could await the results of our requests overseas."

Zayed, along with federal regulators and investigators, is seeking information about Cook's activities in Switzerland, Panama and several other nations.

Zayed told Locklin that prosecutors have agreed to a delay, but he noted that the decision is up to U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum, who is presiding over Cook's criminal case.

"We have indicated we wouldn't object to a short delay, but we would object to a lengthy delay," meaning longer than a month, Mauzy said.

Dixon, who met with investors for nearly two hours Monday, declined to comment.

A handful of the investors met with a reporter afterward to describe what took place, however.

Locklin said he drove about 18 hours for the meeting at the request of fellow investors who subscribe to his weekly e-mail newsletter about the case. He said Dixon said a prospective 25-year prison term was a reasonably strong outcome given the need to quickly lock down Cook's activities.

Locklin said Dixon didn't seem to think a sentencing delay was needed to ensure his cooperation.

"The term he used was ongoing concealment," Locklin said.

Several investors said everyone seemed grateful that Dixon has personally taken on the case after the original prosecutor, Frank Magill, resigned to become a state judge. They said Dixon met with them beyond their allotted appointment and didn't try to rush them off.

"I feel like we're finally a part of the process," Abrahamson said.

Another investor, who asked not to be identified, said the group "did a good job of expressing our point of view that the money was as likely stolen as dissipated" through failed investments, and thus might exist in some cache somewhere.

"We just don't think they had enough time to spend that much money on hookers," Locklin added, referring to a Star Tribune article that described Cook's penchant for lavish spending on strippers.

One investor asked not to be identified to protect the privacy of her parents, who are in their 90s. She explained that she and her parents lost just over $950,000 in Cook's scheme. Her mother fell recently, cutting an eye, and needs medical care they can no longer afford, she said.

"My father was in business for years and saved all this money because he never wanted to be on the dole, and now that's what's going to happen," the woman said, her eyes reddening.

She said Dixon seemed sympathetic and revealed that the government has identified 952 victims to date. Although he would not say how much money they invested, she said, Dixon acknowledged that it exceeds the $191 million initially identified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That preliminary figure failed to cover the entire period that Cook was pitching the scheme and is in the process of being adjusted.

The investors said Dixon told them that the government plans to seek a restitution order against Cook that would be binding on him for 20 years after his release from prison. But the investors -- mostly retirees of modest means -- noted that will come far to late for many of them.