Legal News

Oh Fer Geez! Minn. Prosecutors Keep Lid On Petters Allegations

By Amir Efrati

Well, don’t cha know? In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, pre-trial action is well under way in the Tom Petters massive “DVD” fraud case. And so is a good ol’ fashioned 1st Amendment row.

From June 30 to July 2, no fewer than 12 documents were filed under seal on the Petters (pictured) docket, with no description whatsoever.

Turns out attorneys for Petters had filed motions seeking to dismiss the case and sanctions against federal prosecutors for some sort of misconduct. But the government convinced the judge, Richard Kyle, to seal them. One of the documents is apparently the defense’s objection to Kyle’s sealing order. Here’s the Star Trib article and click here, here and here for prior LB posts on Petters, who is accused of running a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme.

We thought the sealing of such motions was a bit unusual. So did the Star Trib, which on Wednesday enlisted the help of Faegre & Benson to file a motion seeking to unseal them and to at least obtain a further description of the documents that were filed.

We checked in with our old Law Blog friend, Wayne State’s Peter Henning, who said “it’s hard to think of a reason for the sealing unless the documents revealed something about an ongoing investigation” stemming from the alleged fraud. The motions could also have references to grand jury material, Henning says, “which normally isn’t disclosed until it has to be, at trial.”

If the defense made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, it could be a claim that prosecutors presented false evidence or perjured testimony before the grand jury, he said.

“They might be setting the stage for their case,” Henning said. “This is one way to set up a defense of putting the government on trial,” similar to the public corruption case against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 09, 2009 (boomark / email).