GE to pay $19M received from $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme

Giant financier General Electric Capital Corp. agreed on Wednesday to repay $19 million in interest and principal it received from the $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Tom Petters, the former Wayzata businessman.

The GE settlement is the largest to date in a series of lawsuits seeking to recover false profits collected by investors and others who did business with Petters. So far, more than $284 million in assets have been collected, most of which will be repaid to victims.

At one time, GE was one of the principal lenders to Petters and his business interests. Petters' decadelong scheme involved soliciting investment funds from individuals and various groups to purchase consumer electronic goods from manufacturers and sell them to big-box retailers. However, no such transactions took place, and early investors were paid often generous interest rates with the funds that came from later investors.

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