Ponzi scheme suspect liked cars -- and his submarine

Court-appointed receivers have provided a peek at the lives of the fallen wealthy this year. Tom Petters had his ritzy homes and fancy cars. Car king Denny Hecker had his gilded watches and countless golf clubs. Now comes Trevor Cook.

Cook, a brash young money manager from Apple Valley, had his business interests put under a receivership this week at the request of regulators who accuse him in federal court filings of amassing a fortune by running an international Ponzi scheme involving currency trades.

According to documents made public Wednesday, Cook, 37, likes fancy cars as much as the next high-roller: The documents show he had a Rolls Royce Silver Spur, a Maserati Quattroporte, a Hummer H2, a Jaguar S-Type, a Mercedes-Benz 420SEL and possibly other cars. Investors say Cook bragged about his heavily customized Audi S8, which he said could top 200 miles per hour.

But Cook might be best remembered for his 60-foot houseboat (complete with a brass stripper pole), his island in Canada -- and his two-person submarine.

Gerald Durand, a former business partner from Faribault who broke away from Cook in June 2008, told investigators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Cook told him he bought the sub for $40,000 on eBay.

"He bought the island, so he needed a submarine to sail around the water up there. It's a two-man deal," Durand said, according to a transcript filed in federal court this week.

Cook bought land on what's known as Pine Island in Rainy Lake, north of Fort Frances, Ontario, where he's been building a custom cabin, according to sources with knowledge of the property.

But Cook apparently discovered that northern lake water isn't sub-friendly.

In an e-mail to a Swiss associate last spring, Cook wrote that [sic] "the water at Rainy lake was too dark for the submarine.. there is mud at the bottom and the lake was not that deep thus you couldn't see anything whatsoever in the sub.. The submarine will work well in Panama where the water is crystal clear.. Thus I went with a 60 foot houseboat for the island. It has a slide and a hottub.. It is big pimping..

"There is a new kid rock video called sweet home Alabama and he has a houseboat with a brass pole on it," Cook continued. "So I ordered a brass pole to be installed on the houseboat."

If the sub is out of the country, though, Cook now has five days to account for it.

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis has appointed former federal prosecutor R.J. Zayed, a partner in the Minneapolis law firm of Carlson, Caspers, Vandenburgh and Lindquist, as a receiver in the case with orders to gather the assets of Cook and various related entities and individuals.

The order freezes 30 domestic and foreign bank and investment accounts controlled by Cook or his associates.

And it freezes all funds held for the defendants by five Minneapolis law firms, one Georgia law firm, and the California law firm of Gary Saunders, who was involved with Cook in a project to build what was to be Panama's largest casino project, along with a separate condo tower project in Panama City.

Zayed is also authorized to seize the historic Van Dusen mansion in Minneapolis, where Cook's Oxford Global companies operated; Cook's home on Tiffany Court in Burnsville, where Pat Kiley taped his "Follow the Money" radio program that pitched the currency investment; Cook's 2.3 acres on the island in Rainy Lake; and the Panamanian land.