You’ve heard about the Ponzi mansions. You’ve heard about the luxury automobiles — Scott Rothstein’s $1.6 million Bugatti and the $350,000 Rolls-Royces he and suspects in other Ponzi schemes enjoyed.
Now comes word that Trevor Cook, implicated in Minnesota with radio talk-show host Pat Kiley in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving at least $194 million, owned a submarine.
Not a submarine sandwich, but an actual, two-person, submersible submarine used for underwater transit. It allegedly was purchased on eBay for $40,000 and was used to tool around the waters that surrounded his private island in Canada.
Yep, he allegedly bought himself his own island, too.
An old-fashioned speedboat to access the island, perhaps, was too practical. And perhaps building a bridge to the island upon which Cook could pilot his Rolls was too expensive, even for an alleged Ponzi-schemer forcing himself to draw the line somewhere. (Yes, regulators say that Cook, like Rothstein and others, also owned a Rolls.)
At least two people who’ve been deposed in the Cook case have referenced the submarine. And Cook referenced it himself in an email sent to an associate in Europe last spring, according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
He appeared to be disappointed after the purchase, the newspaper reported, because the waters surrounding the island were muddy. Not to worry, though: Cook ventured the sub would serve its intended purpose much farther south — in Panama, where he believed the water to be more sub-friendly than those dark waters in Canada.
We obtained a copy of the Sept. 14 transcript in which SEC attorney Steven L. Klawans was conducting the deposition of witness Gerald Durand. The deposition turned to the matter of Cook’s affinity for expensive things.
“Does Cook own any boats, planes or anything?” Klawans asked Durand.
“I heard be bought a sub,” Durand replied.
The transcript does not capture the emotional feel of the setting, but it’s easy to imagine that people observing the deposition were stunned.
“A what?” Klawans intoned.
“Submarine,” Durand reaffirmed.
A moment later, in response to another question by Klawans, Durand told a story that may become the stuff of legend in the Ponzi world.
“[Cook] told me . . . he bought the sub because he bought the island, so he needed a submarine to sail around the water up there. It’s a two-man deal. Paid $40,000 for it off of [eBay].”
Visit the Star Tribune, whose coverage of both the alleged Tom Petters’ Ponzi scheme and the alleged Cook/Kiley Ponzi scheme has been riveting.
