A Lino Lakes man is under investigation for what could be the quintessential Minnesota scam, part fish story and part humanitarian relief effort.

Since the early 1990s, Michael Anthony Powell has allegedly reeled in hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors by promising them a load of carp, according to a search warrant unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Powell could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His published phone numbers no longer work, and he did not respond to an e-mail.

According to the search warrant affidavit, Powell operated through a kaleidoscope of business names, secured investments from 40 people under false pretenses and used the money for his own gain.

Six unidentified investors collectively sunk $694,000 into Powell's ventures from 2000 through 2005, wrote Rachel S. Williams, an agent with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Not one has been paid.

Williams said one of them loaned Powell $50,000 in 2001 expecting repayment within 90 days. She said that when they crossed paths again last September, Powell allegedly solicited more money for a new venture. "You have 50 thousand reasons to invest," Powell allegedly told the person.

Powell used a variety of names for his ventures that began with the words "River of Life," as well as the names Minnesota Fisheries, Minnesota Fish Co., and MN Direct Trade Inc., the affidavit says.

Multi-tiered scam

It said Powell allegedly told some investors in 2004 that he had a $1.2 million contract to deliver container loads of carp fillets to China; persuaded some business associates in 2005 to buy a fish plant in Pepin, Wis., where they were going to process carp for buyers he had supposedly lined up in Serbia, and pitched a deal as recently as last December to haul carp from Utah Lake that would be shipped as "humanitarian aid to countries around the globe."

Greg Kennedy and Steve Peterson, two investors in the Lake Pepin fish-processing plant, told investigators that they learned after buying into the deal that Powell had never secured sales contracts from Serbian fish buyers.

They said they also learned about other investors in Powell's River of Life enterprises, which he had not disclosed.

"As a result, the board changed the company name to Minnesota Fish Company and sought to dissolve any affiliation between Powell's pre-existing companies and the Minnesota Fish Company," the affidavit says. "According to Kennedy and Peterson, in November 2005, Powell was fired for using corporate funds for personal expenses."

Neither Kennedy nor the company responded to messages seeking comment; Peterson could not be located.

Williams said in the affidavit that she was alerted to the case in July by Sgt. Chris Abbas, a white-collar crime investigator with Minneapolis Police. Neither could be reached for comment Wednesday.

On April 11, investigators searched Powell's office in the 600 block of Civic Heights Drive in Circle Pines and his home in the 7400 block of Lake Drive in Lino Lakes. They seized numerous boxes of documents, computer equipment, story boards, phone records, videotapes and CDs.

Williams said that as recently as this month, she saw a website about a company called Utah Lake International Fisheries, which identified Powell as its marketing and humanitarian projects director.

"The content of the letter refers to Powell's recent visit to Utah and his concept of removing carp from Utah Lake and providing it as humanitarian aid to countries around the globe," her affidavit says. "This concept is similar in nature to previous fraudulent humanitarian carp proposals Powell has presented to over 40 investors dating back to 1992."

Dan Browning • 612-673-4493

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