Common methods for concealing assets and Minneapolis money manager Christopher Pettengill-

• The January 4, 2011 “Asset Search News Roundup” advised that assets are routinely hidden by utilizing portable valuable commodities like diamonds, bulk cash smuggling and checks & wire transfers.  Another common method for concealing assets is trade-based money laundering.  As p.19 of “Money Laundering Vulnerabilities of Free Trade Zones” stated, trade-based laundering “include[s] under and over-invoicing, phantom shipments and other falsification of the value or quantity of a shipment…”  One trade-based laundering scheme, is analyzed at the following hyperlink.

• The Court’s June 21, 2011 docket entries demonstrated that Minneapolis money manager Christopher Pettengill pleaded guilty to the securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges described by his felony information.  According to a June 13th Star Tribune article, these charges were connected to Trevor Cook’s $194 million Ponzi scheme.  The post “Money Laundering By Minneapolis Money Managers?” earlier explained that Mr. Pettengill and Mr. Cook were initially named in a civil lawsuit asserting claims against them for fraud, conversion civil theft, etc.  As that post suggested, Mr. Pettengill could have facilitated part of his frauds by displaying to victims what might be a meaningless chart:

Copyright 2011 Fred L. Abrams