BULLETIN: Feds Say Bo Beckman, Trevor Cook Ponzi Scheme Figure, Tried To Dupe National Hockey League In Bid To Acquire Interest In Minnesota Wild — And Used Funds Stolen From Elderly Couple And Others To Do It

BULLETIN: A new indictment has been returned in the case of Jason Bo-Alan Beckman, Gerald Durand and Pat Kiley — all figures in the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme that allegedly gathered $194 million and one was of the largest financial crimes in Minnesota history.

Among the stunning new allegations is that Beckman tried to inflate his net worth to dupe the National Hockey League in a bid to acquire an ownership interest in the NHL’s Minnesota Wild franchise and that money stolen from investors — including senior citizens now in their nineties — was used in Beckman’s unsuccessful effort to gain a share of the team.

Cook, now serving a 25-year prison sentence for ruining investors in his colossal Ponzi caper, provided Beckman $5 million in commingled funds of investors duped by his currency-trading scheme for “use in his bid for ownership in the Minnesota Wild,” according to the indictment.

During his 2008 bid, Beckman retained local counsel in Minnesota and the services of certified public accountants to assist him in preparing materials for the NHL.

Beckman’s own attorney, according to the indictment, warned him that the currency program was “riddled with illegalities,” including “the illegal sale of unregistered securities, inadequate or misleading disclosure to [victim investors], both about the products and about the fees, and transactions by unlicensed persons and entities,” according to the indictment.

The attorney further warned that the currency program needed to be discontinued and that investors’ funds needed to be returned, according to the indictment.

Regardless, Beckman pressed on, according to the indictment.

His activities to dupe the NHL have led to two mail-fraud charges for mailings in May and October of 2008, according to the indictment.

In December 2011, the PP Blog reported that federal prosecutors asserted that Beckman had sought to address a whopping shortfall in a trading account and prop up the monumental fraud by stealing about $3.9 million from the elderly couple.

The indictment returned yesterday alleges that money belonging to those two victims was part of a commingled pool of funds used to trick the NHL.

Beckman sold two life-insurance policies on the woman’s “then 92-year old husband” for about $3.9 million, and then converted “the proceeds of that sale for his own benefit,” prosecutors alleged in December.

The woman had suffered a stroke, resides with her husband at an assisted-living facility and suffers from partial paralysis on her left side, prosecutors alleged in December.

Beckman’s theft of about $3.9 million from the elderly couple also led to a charge of income-tax evasion, according to the indictment.

The accused schemer knew the money he stole constituted income, but he channeled it through various entities and ignored advice from a tax-return preparer to file return for the 2008 tax year — the same year he tried to dupe the NHL, according to the indictment.

The indictment also alleges that Beckman filed a false return in 2009 that claimed a Ponzi-scheme loss of nearly $1.5 million.

Just a year after he was trying to impress the NHL with his purported financial worth and using stolen funds to do it, Beckman claimed his 2009 income was “-6.607,” according to the indictment.