Minnesota Teen Challenge is Changing its Name

MNTC.org:

We’re Changing our Name!

For almost 30 years, our program has been restoring hope to teens and adults struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. This year, we are in the process of officially changing our name to Mn Adult & Teen Challenge to more accurately communicate who we serve...

MNTC claims (audio) it uses God to cure addiction.

A little history from a previous post about MNTC and Frank Vennes:

Minnesota Teen Challenge filed a motion to dismiss the $5,790,606.51 Palm Beach Finance clawback May 10th using  the recently passed statute limiting clawbacks of fraudulent transfers to 2 years instead of 6 years. The retroactive part of the  bill is intended by its sponsors to rescue non-profits from having to cough up the stolen money they received specifically from the Petters Ponzi scheme - Listen:



House_Audio_1384 by spongiforce

Defenders of HF 1384 claim the non-profits rescued by this new statute are unwitting victims of Tom Petters. The analogy they use is Petters, with no criminal record (it was expunged) is like a bank robber dropping his loot into a church's poor box - how were they to know?

When it comes to Minnesota Teen Challenge and other non-profits who received fraudulent transfers of money from Frank Vennes, there's three big problems with that analogy;

1) Frank Vennes was not an anonymous donor to MNTC.

2) He was a board member.

3) It cannot be said that MNTC was unaware that Frank Vennes was a fraudster - he was a convicted money launderer. It is highly unlikely that the MNTC board did not know that Frank Vennes had served time for that crime since he gave one or more lectures (audio here) about it, including one at something called the "God and Money Dinner" with Darrel Amiot who also served on the MNTC board.

This is what Minnesota Teen Challenge Director Rich Scherber said about accepting Vennes funds (2011?) - Note that it only mentions Petters, not Vennes (download PDF here):

Dear Friends of Teen Challenge,

If you have been following the news lately, you may have heard that Petters Companies is under investigation. Those who have walked with Teen Challenge over the years have seen the generosity Tom Petters has shown towards our ministry. Needless to say, we are stunned and saddened by the news we have recently heard. We have been contacted by many of you who are concerned for us and are praying; we are so thankful for your prayers and support.

In an affidavit, Teen Challenge is mentioned as being one of many victims. Our board felt it important to share with you the ministry’s involvement with Petters Companies, and how this situation has affected us.

About seven years ago, one of our major donors recommended that we consider building a strong reserve fund for Teen Challenge – a nest egg –for use in case of emergency or for program expansion. The donor suggested that we work with the Harvest Fund, and later the Fidelis Foundation, organizations that work with many other Christian ministries, and consider investing some of his large charitable gifts in the Petters Companies, a once strong, respected corporate entity in Minnesota.

From the very beginning of our investments, our board of directors adamantly insisted that no other general donor funds ever be transferred into those notes. For seven years this investment bore a healthy return and helped us expand our programming and outreach. In the past year, we have been using the interest on these funds to help underwrite the costs of our statewide programs.

Strong Christian stewardship is one of our embraced values. It is important for you to know that our board is very prudent and careful with all contributions that come into the ministry. We recognize that many of your contributions come at great sacrifice. This situation has caught hundreds of other investors and ministries by surprise and we are in the process of assessing its impact on the ministry.

As always, your prayers and support of our Christian mission are much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Rich Scherber

Executive Director

I contacted MN Teen Challenge. The spokesperson had no comment on the motion to dismiss.

Below is the MNTC letter (click on the letter to make it larger:

This is from a MNTC newsletter:

Where is Kurt Bills Getting this Stuff?

I was listening to Kurt Bills on Almanac when he said Petters Trustee Doug Kelley was "Petters' lawyer".

I'm guessing Kurt Bills has been reading the vintage  Stop the Petters Scam website. Maybe the Petters-Fraud website too. Or maybe they watched "The Second Fraud" movie - trailer below:




I really don't care about the allegations coming from the Kurt Bills campaign except this; if Kurt Bills is going to dredge up a lot of old, rehashed stuff, he should be honest and transparent about where he found it so people can read for themselves and decide.

If those websites were the source of the allegations, of course the Kurt Bills campaign cherry-picked what they found on those websites. There are more politicos from BOTH parties mentioned on those websites. As yet, nothing about Petters' financier Frank Vennes (mentioned on both those websites) has emerged as a campaign issue in this election.

The Petters Ponzi Scheme Becomes Campaign Issue in MInnesota Senate Race

In my previous post, I mentioned how the right-wing tried to blame the success of Tom Petters Ponzi scheme on Senator Amy Klobuchar. Senator Klobuchar's opponent Kurt Bills has posted his first TV ad on You Tube making the allegations part of his campaign:




Haven't we seen these allegations before?:

I'm more interested, frankly, in the weird and marginally ethical ads running in the Star Tribune, paid for by an organization called the Stop the Petters Scam Foundation. You can view the ads here at their Web site. They purport to tell the REAL story behind the Petters case and how it's being handled in the courts. The ads make thinly veiled allegations of impropriety against public figures such as Norm Coleman, Amy Klobuchar and in today's ad, federal District Judge Ann Montgomery.

Today's ad, for example, doesn't actually say that Montgomery did improper judicial favors for a former colleague, Petter's attorney Doug Kelley, but it absolutely implies it, leaving the reader with the impression that Montgomery's a crook (just like Kelley, et al). The ad concludes with a reference to "one national bankruptcy law expert" -- of course, unnamed -- who says Montgomery's conduct in regard to judicial immunity for Kelley "is unprecedented in the bankruptcy context."

Here's a quote from Doug Kelley from MPR:

That trustee, Doug Kelley, said the allegations in Bills' ad are preposterous. "To base a serious ad on testimony which has been so thoroughly discredited is irresponsible," Kelley said. "I would expect a serious candidate for high office in this state to go out and be careful about allegations such as that." Kelley, who said he is a lifelong Republican, said Osskopp approached him earlier this year to see if he had anything the campaign could use against Klobuchar. Kelly said he told Osskopp he was barking up the wrong tree.

Doug Kelley's law firm is representing former Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton which makes this tweet  from Sutton's wife ironic:

Also read about the guy making the allegations over at Left.mn.

Daily Caller Source Accused U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones of having " aided and harbored a $50 bn Ponze swindle"

I had a few things to say in the City Pages Blotter about a pathetic October surprise some right-wingers cooked up with the right-wing website The Daily Caller about Tom Petters and Amy Klobuchar.

Naturally, these right-wingers are not interested in other politicians named in connection to the Petters scam such as the prominent politician in another Daily Caller article from a while back.

The Daily Caller's source is Richard Hettler. Here is a klassy tweet from Mr. Hettler accusing U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones of having " aided and harbored a $50 bn Ponze swindle"

 

Palm Beach Trustee: General Electric Capital Conspired With Tom Petters to Defraud Investors

The attorney for the Palm Beach Finance Trustee filed a civil suit  (PDF) against GE Capital, one of the world's biggest financial firms  alleging GE Capital employees knew that Tom Petters was running a Ponzi scheme way back "on or about October 24, 2000" and did nothing to stop it:

GECC would remain silent about its discovery of the Conspiracy and assist in its continued fraudulent concealment. Petters would cause GECC to be paid from new, defrauded lenders rather than from the proceeds of legitimate operations.

Even worse, the document alleges GE Capital helped Tom Petters recruit more victims with a recommendation letter addressed to "Whom it May Concern" (see screenshot of the letter below).

Here's the part that mentions the role Vennes played in the scheme involving the letter:

In 2002, Vennes introduced the principals of the general partner of the Palm Beach Funds to Petters. Petters used his former relationship with GECC as a strategic selling point, representing to the Palm Beach Funds through Vennes and Vennes’ Minnesota legal counsel, that the GECC-Petters business relationship ended: (i) profitably for both sides; (ii) with appropriate and ordinary documentation; and (iii) because GECC wanted to be Petters’ sole lender but Petters refused. 

The Recommendation Letter was shared by Petters with Vennes. Vennes in turn waxed poetic about the successful Petters-GECC relationship as a part of his efforts to convince the Palm Beach Funds to lend to Petters. Vennes’ representations to the Palm Beach Funds in regards to Petters’ “excellent” relationship with GECC were influenced by the Recommendation Letter. The Palm Beach Funds, through its agent, justifiably relied upon these representations. 

These representations were false and Petters and GECC knew them to be when made.

Here is the infamous letter that GE Capital's  Richard Menczynski gave Petters to use to  convince victims to give money to Petters:

NOTE: The PBF Trustee is seeking the total losses of the Palm Beach funds (approximately $1.1 Billion) plus punitive damages.

Vennes/Fry Trial May be Postponed Beyond February 12, 2013

Joe Friedberg, in an August 29, 2012 letter addressed to the court stated the following (emphasis is mine):

...based on the Venne's continuance motion, trial in this matter will be rescheduled from October 1, 2012 and will now commence February 11, 2013, or later.

The Vennes home in Shorewood, Minnesota was raided September 24, 2008, nearly four years ago. Tom Petters was convicted in 2009.

Friedberg also says in his letter:

"The undersigned believes the ends of justice served by granting of the continuance in this matter outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial."

The public? Does that include the investors?

Arraignment on Second Superseding Indictment - Vennes & Fry Plead Not Guilty

It was a short hearing - too short for me to complete my sketch of Mr. Vennes. After the arraignment, Frank Vennes and his lawyer walked briskly away (not run as was the case at a previous hearing). I managed to snap a few fuzzy and shaky photos with a phone as they exited the courthouse via the skyways: