Minnesota man pleads guilty to $190M fraud

Trevor Cook admitted that he bilked investors of funds he said would generate 10 percent to 12 percent in annual returns from foreign currency trading. Instead, the funds went to a variety of other uses including making payments to other investors, buying two trading firms, purchasing land in Panama and paying large gambling debts, the Justice Department said.

About 1,000 people were taken in by the fraud that ran from January 2007 through July 2009.

Cook, to be sentenced at an undetermined date, could receive a 20-year prison sentence, the Justice Department said.

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