Latest Guilty Plea in Petters Ponzi Scheme Comes as Orono Resident's Trial Starts
Frank Vennes, a business associate of Tom Petters who made north of $48 million, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to one count of securities fraud and one count of money laundering. His co-defendant, James Nathan Fry of Orono, heads to trial this week.
Editor's note: The following is a statement released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice and posted in its entirety. A business associate of Tom Petters, the Minnesota businessman convicted in 2009 of orchestrating a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon in federal court to fraudulently raising money from individuals and through hedge funds for investment in Petters Company, Inc. (“PCI”). Frank Elroy Vennes, Jr., 55, of Stuart, FL, was charged July 11, 2011 in a Second Superseding Indictment. Vennes’s co-defendant in this case, Orono resident James Nathan Fry, 59, was charged with five related counts of securities fraud, four counts of wire fraud and three counts of making a false statement to the U.S. …
In this Article:
