Feds seeking assets from Petters figure's ex-husband

In August 2008, just before Deanna Coleman went to federal prosecutors with a story that would lead to the conviction of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters for running a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme, she divorced her husband and handed over substantial assets to him.

She since has testified that those assets were acquired through her role in the fraud. Now the government wants an accounting of any assets her ex-husband got that were paid for with tainted funds. And it wants a restraining order to prevent sale of whatever is left.

Coleman's husband of 11 years, a self-employed carpenter named Allen Munson, got the couple's million-dollar home in Minnetrista, a condo in Costa Rica, substantial stock holdings and cash in several investment and financial accounts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Alexander said in a motion filed Tuesday in St. Paul that most, if not all, of the assets Munson derived from the divorce were paid for with fraud proceeds Coleman got by serving as Petters' top lieutenant.

Munson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Coleman pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2008 and was sentenced in September 2010 to a year in prison. She was released last fall and testified in December for the trustee who has been trying to recover assets in the bankruptcy of her former employer, Petters Co. Inc., and related entities.

Coleman agreed to forfeit assets she got from the fraud. That includes the Minnetrista home and an adjacent lot that she and Munson bought in 2005, Alexander said. That property sold during the divorce, with Munson netting $975,000 on the sale, according to court records.

Other assets he acquired from the divorce include stock in Redstone American Grill, Medafor, Inc., uBid (CapeCoastal Trading Corp.), Cardinal Ethanol, Nedak Ethanol, and Otter Tail AG Enterprises. Coleman said Petters gave her the shares in Redstone, and that she bought the other shares with money from Petters Corp. Inc., his primary vehicle for the Ponzi scheme.

Munson also got a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup, a Polaris ATV, a 1993 Polaris snowmobile and a trailer, but the government opted to let those be.

Munson had a carpentry business by the name of RRDD but did not make significant purchases during the marriage with his own income, said Alexander, who wants a restraining order to preserve assets subject to forfeiture and any assets traceable to the property, plus an accounting within 21 days.