Swindler Trevor Cook left victims "manure" in plea deal

Photo: ktylerconk

According to a posting on the court-appointed receiver's website, Cook led prosecutors to believe he had access to assets and cash that might help make his victims whole. But it sounds like he led them astray, instead.

"Cook informed the Receiver that he had no submarines, houseboats, or hidden cash," R.J. Zayed said in the statement. "He also identified no real estate, personal property, cash, bank accounts, safe-deposit boxes, jewelry collections, art collections, bonds, stocks, precious metals, buried treasures, or assets of any kind that were not already known to the Receiver."

"Other than the $362,700 in cash and the collection of "Fabergé" eggs or purses resembling 'Fabergé' eggs that Cook caused to be turned over to FBI on April 12, 2010, and which were identified at Cook's change-of-plea hearing on April 13, 2010, Cook provided the Receiver with little new information with respect to the nature and location of any Receivership assets," he said.

Or, as investor Barbara Pefley is quoted as saying in the Star Tribune, "We gave away the farm and got manure in return."

Cook pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of tax evasion and faces a possible 20 years in federal prison on the mail fraud charge and five years on the tax evasion charge.

A sentencing date has not been set.