ST. PAUL, Minn. AP – A longtime aide to a Minnesota businessman accused of operating a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme said Monday that he was struggling to find new money and hold off nervous investors by the time she went to federal prosecutors to report the alleged scheme.
Deanna Coleman, 43, of Plymouth, was vice president of operations at Petters Co. Inc., a branch of Petters Group Worldwide, whose holdings included well-known and legitimate companies such as Polaroid and Sun Country Airlines before it collapsed last year. Prosecutors say PCI was at the heart of the fraud and the economic engine of Petters’ corporate empire.
