As a courtroom packed with victims of his scheme looked on, convicted Minnesota businessman Jason “Bo” Beckman was sentenced Thursday, Jan. 3, to 30 years in prison for his role in the $194 million Ponzi scheme led by purported foreign currency trader Trevor Cook.
Before he was sentenced, an emotional Beckman spoke for about 40 minutes and claimed innocence in all aspects of the fraud.
“I cannot admit to something I did not do,” he told Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis before the sentencing. Beckman also complained about the jury’s lack of sufficient deliberation and said he’s proud to join the ranks of the innocent who have been targeted by unjust prosecution. The jury found him guilty in June on more than 20 fraud-related counts.
At the end of his address, Beckman knelt and tearfully asked the judge for mercy.
After watching his display, Davis said Beckman’s address to the Minneapolis courtroom supported the idea that people shouldn’t have access to an English dictionary, as Beckman’s speech was loaded with lofty language. That included complaints about the “hierarchy of moral turpitude” of the prosecution.
“You have used the English language to do violence to so many,” Davis said.
Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Beckman, who attracted investors to the Ponzi scheme exposed in 2009. His 30-year prison term would have him out by the time he’s in his early 70s.
“I’ve never seen a more proactive liar,” said David MacLaughlin, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, who spoke after Beckman. He called the Cook case the worst Ponzi scheme the state has ever seen. While the scheme run by Minnetonka businessman Tom Petters was much larger — totaling $3.5 billion — Petters’ largest victims were hedge funds. But the Cook fraud was worse “as measured by the human suffering it’s caused to individuals,” MacLaughlin said. Cook and his co-conspirators went after small investors and took everything they had, he said.
Also Thursday, Beckman’s co-conspirator Gerald Durand received a 20-year sentence. As part of their sentences, Beckman and Durand were ordered to pay $155 million each in restitution.
Later on Thursday, Chris Pettengill was sentenced to 7.5 years for his role in the scheme. He had earlier pleaded guilty and testified against Beckman, Durand and a third defendant, Patrick Kiley, at the trial in June.
The hearing for Kiley had some surprises, though. Speaking prior to his scheduled sentencing, Kiley accused his attorney, Henry Nasif Mahmoud, of misconduct. Judge Davis granted Kiley’s motion for a new attorney and will appoint someone to represent him, according to records of the hearing. Kiley’s sentencing hearing was postponed until Jan. 18.
Durand addressed the court as well, telling Davis he grew suspicious of Cook and was forced out of the Van Dusen mansion, where Oxford Global Partners — an investment firm that pitched the scheme — was based. Durand came to believe the business was actually an embezzlement scheme run by Cook and Pettengill, and Durand said he still thinks the missing money is stashed somewhere.
Earlier in the day, the court heard from a long line of victims. Many were persuaded to take their investments out of other funds and put them in Cook’s complicated but supposedly safe foreign currency trading scheme.
“I don’t trust a whole lot of people now,” said Theresa Johnson, who said she and her husband lost $88,000 from a 401(k) account.
Ken Locklin, an investor from Texas, said he initially trusted Pat Kiley, who recruited investors through a radio show aired around the country. As the fraud was exposed, though, Locklin said he came to realize that “I have never heard them not lie.” Locklin lost $1.2 million, he said, and his mother lost $886,000, money she had built up through investments since the 1970s after she received a $250,000 life insurance payout.
The three convicts were driven by “insane, disgusting greed,” said Fred Quiggle, whose family lost millions in the scheme. “It’s time for them to reap what they have sown,” he said, looking over his shoulder to make eye contact with the three.
Larry Page, another victim, asked Davis to give the three convicts the maximum sentence allowed “at the harshest prison this country has to offer.”
Before Beckman was sentenced, the court also heard from his wife, Holly. She tearfully pleaded with Davis to allow her husband to resume his search for the missing cash. “Bo is my best friend, the greatest husband in the whole world,” she said. Cook used Beckman’s good nature to fool him, she said.
Beckman’s attorney said he plans to appeal the verdict and the sentence to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
John Welbes can be reached at 651-228-2175.
