Convicted Ponzi Schemer Petters Gets Hearing

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Convicted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters is not going away quietly.

Nearly four years after his conviction on 20 felony counts, Petters will appear at a hearing in October in a long-shot attempt to cut his 50-year prison sentence.

His corporate bankruptcy case, meanwhile, is moving slowly as it approaches its fifth anniversary. Attorneys fees now exceed $76 million but a payoff for creditors and victims of the $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme is nowhere in sight.

Bankruptcy trustee Doug Kelley says he expects things to start move quickly if he gets favorable rulings from the bankruptcy judge overseeing "clawback" lawsuits that seek to recover profits from investors who lent money to Petters and were repaid with interest for businesses deals that turned out to be bogus.