Petters co-defendant who admitted forging 10,000 documents sentenced to 5 years in prison

Petters co-defendant White sentenced to 5 years

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A man who admitted forging 10,000 documents in a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly led by Minnesota businessman Tom Petters has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Robert White apologized to fraud victims when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle in St. Paul on Wednesday.

White said he and Deanna Coleman, vice president of Petters Co. Inc., discussed going to the authorities together before the scheme collapsed in 2008. But he says Coleman went to the FBI without him, then put him off when he revisited the idea.

Kyle says he took that into account in sentencing White, who’d faced up to 20 years. Coleman was sentenced one year and one day earlier this month.

Petters is appealing his conviction and 50-year sentence.