CNN Covers Trevor Cook Ponzi: Strippers, Hookers, ‘Ladies Of The Evening’ And ‘Booze Runs’; ‘We Never Have Any Risk,’ Acknowledged Schemer Says

Trevor Cook: From CNNMoney.

He wore a suit by day, persuading prospects he was buying commodities at a lower price and selling them at a higher price so quickly that there was no exposure to loss.

Many of Trevor Cook’s investors identify themselves as Christians. His $190 million Ponzi scheme was centered in Minneapolis/St. Paul, a U.S. heartland region known as the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

“We never have any exposure — OK? That’s obviously the methodology that I’m kinda driving home here,” Cook told an audience in a pitch captured on video.

“We are never actually in the market, so we never have any risk,” Cook claimed.

But Cook’s own recklessness, penchant for gambling and appetite for excess posed a great, unspoken risk to investors, investigators now say. At night, he traded his role as a responsible, respectable trader-in-chief  for a secret role as a free-spending player who preferred the dark alleys of life. There were “ladies of the evening” — and there were “booze runs,” according to a series of videos released by CNNMoney.com.

CNN aired a live report on Cook during Campbell Brown’s 8 p.m. newscast on Thursday. The report was part of a package by CNNMoney’s Poppy Harlow, who joined Brown in the studio.

Victims — some of whom have wondered if America is aware of their plight and worried that Breaking News on CNN might preempt Harlow’s report and delay the airing of their story — still are coming to grips with the magnitude of their losses. Emotions continue to run high.

R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in the case, said many of the victims had been rendered destitute. He described the scheme as an “incredible tragedy” that has been “nothing short of devastating” to investors.

CNNMoney now has posted eight videos from Harlow’s report on the scheme. The package is titled, “Breaking Faith: Fraud in the Heartland.”

The PP Blog highly recommends that readers visit the CNNMoney site and take some time to view the videos. Kudos to CNN for devoting resources and putting Harlow on airplanes to return to her Twin Cities hometown and also Chicago to report on this important, gripping story.

See videos from the CNNMoney package by Poppy Harlow on the Twin Cities-based Ponzi scheme of Trevor Cook and the alleged role of former Christian radio host Pat Kiley.