A federal magistrate judge in St. Paul ruled Monday that bank records filed in connection with a lawsuit over a suspicious currency investment program must be filed largely in public, an order that could help investors find their missing money.
Attorneys for Minneapolis money manager Bo Beckman and his firm, the Oxford Private Client Group, had obtained banking information marked "confidential" by a co-defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed in July after nine Ohioans couldn't withdraw cash from the program.
Beckman's attorneys at Greene Espel asked the court for permission to share the information with overseas attorneys and governments in an effort to track down the money for all of the investors in the currency program. The Star Tribune also filed motions seeking to open the records.
But Trevor Cook, a Minneapolis financial adviser who reportedly managed the currency investment program, objected on privacy and other grounds.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes sided with Beckman and the newspaper. He found that Cook had failed to make a case that the bank records designated as confidential involved trade secrets or other justifiably confidential information.
The bank records show the flow of money into and out of the accounts and should be declassified, Keyes wrote. He did allow an exception for individual investors who are not parties to the lawsuit; their names and bank account numbers will be hidden.
Keyes said his order applies to "all of the general account information" and details of the monetary transactions -- not just to the limited information that Beckman's attorneys wanted to release. He gave Cook until Nov. 12 to produce declassified versions of the documents.
Dan Browning • 612-673-4493
