Whistleblower recounts Petters' money problems

ST. PAUL, Minnesota: A longtime aide to a Minnesota businessman accused of operating a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme said 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.

Coleman told jurors at Tom Petters' trial on Monday that she went to federal prosecutors on Sept 8, 2008, to report longtime fraud and returned to corporate headquarters wearing a wire just hours later.