A local money manager was jailed Monday for failing to turn over assets allegedly connected to a $190 million fraud scheme.
Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis found Trevor Cook, 37, in contempt of court following Cook’s repeated refusal to help a receiver locate and liquidate more than $35 million in cash and assets.
Cook has refused to speak in the civil case because of a looming criminal indictment.
“Mr. Cook has elected to disregard the court’s orders and will now be a guest of the federal correctional system until he mends his ways,” Merri Jo Gillette, director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Chicago office, said in a statement.
According to Davis’s order, Cook must turn over the following assets and cash before he is able to be released from federal custody:
• $27 million in cash held in offshore accounts
• $670,000 in cash
• $62,000 that Cook gave his brother in July
• $6.1 million that Cook gave to “preferred persons” in June
• $2 million in cash that’s being held in domestic bank accounts
• $53,500 that Cook received from the sale of Hummer and Maserati vehicles
• A houseboat and submarine
• Three luxury vehicles
• Faberge eggs, watches, and Bon Jovi tickets purchased in November
• Computer, e-mail, and wire transfer records
Cook’s legal troubles began in July when investors filed a lawsuit alleging that he mishandled their money.
In November, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed civil suits against Cook and conservative radio talk show host Patrick “Pat” Kiley.
The agencies allege that Cook and Kiley sold unregistered investments through shell companies by promising to deposit investors’ funds into managed, separate accounts and use them to trade in foreign currencies.
The suits accuse Cook and Kiley of misusing investors’ funds to make “Ponzi-like payments” to earlier investors and to pay for lavish lifestyles and gambling debts.
Cook lives in Apple Valley, and Kiley lives in Burnsville.
