Illustrator Ken Avidor, who covered the trial of Tom Petters for City Pages, sends this final video and the following account:

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​In the latest installment of chaos and potential ruin visited upon those touched by convicted swindler Tom Petters, Cathedral High School says it doesn't have the money to repay $250,000 he donated to the school to build an elevator.

The money is part of about $12 million being tracked down by a court-appointed receiver. The school had no idea that the donation, and two other smaller ones, were the profits of ill-gotten gains.

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Ken Avidor

​After Tom Petters was found guilty on 20 counts of fraud and money laundering last week, the College of St. Benedict apparently felt it prudent to distance itself from the $3.5 billion Ponzi-schemer's surname.

The auditorium was named after Petters' parents, Fred and Rosemary, after he handed the college a $3 million pledge. According to the Strib, "[St. Benedict] made its decision in consultation with the Fred and Rosemary Petters family, who it says are 'cherished friends' of the college."

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The Ponzi schemer also had a foul mouth. More >>

Politicians, celebrities and suckers ... the Tom Petters promotional video.

After 30-plus hours of waiting for the jury in the Petters fraud trial to bring in a verdict, after waiting in the Jury Assembly room on the ground floor of the Federal Courthouse in Saint Paul, after sketching the live feed from the empty courtroom on the seventh floor on the flat-screeen monitor, after sketching details of the Jury Assembly Room like the microphone, and the reporters waiting for the verdict in the Jury Assembly Room, after sketching the railroad lift bridge over the Mississippi, after hearing defense attorney Jon Hopeman say the deliberations could go three hours or thirty days, after sketching the televsion news truck and the truck's boom antenna from the seventh floor and the seventh floor and the photos of judges on the seventh floor and the bored, dozing witness from another trial on the seventh floor... just when I was starting to get really bored, we got the word at four o'clock that the jury had reached a decision.More >>

​Tom Petters has been found guilty of all 20 counts. Convicted of bilking more than $3.5 billion out of investors taken in by his slick persona, Petters now awaits sentencing.

On the surface, the owner of Sun Country Airlines and Polaroid Corps. was a wildly successful businessman whose pious Christian streak ingratiated him to myriad movers and shakers throughout the state. But that facade came crumbling down in October of last year after he was arrested for orchestrating what was then the largest ponzi scheme in American history (Bernie Madoff stole the show just weeks later).

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​All was quiet today as the jury continued to deliberate.More >>

I arrived early to the courthouse today, but there was already a crowd of spectators lining up to watch the Government and the Tom Petters's attorneys give their final arguments.More >>