Kelley v. Associated Bank (In re Petters Co.)

548 B.R. 551
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 29, 2016
DocketJOINTLY ADMINISTERED UNDER CASE NO. 08-45257; 08-45258 (GFK); 08-45326 (GFK); 08-45327 (GFK); 08-45328 (GFK); 08-45329 (GFK); 08-45330 (GFK); 08-45331 (GFK); 08-45371 (GFK); 08-45392 (GFK); ADV 10-4422
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 548 B.R. 551 (Kelley v. Associated Bank (In re Petters Co.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelley v. Associated Bank (In re Petters Co.), 548 B.R. 551 (Minn. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR DISMISSAL

GREGORY F. KISHEL, CHIEF UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGE

This adversary proceeding came before the court for oral argument on three specific aspects of the Defendant’s motion for dismissal. The Defendant (“Associated Bank”) appeared by its attorney, Bryan E. Minier, Pedersen & Houpt, P.C., Chicago. The Plaintiff (“the Trustee”) appeared by his attorneys, Terrence J. Fleming and James A. Lodoen, Lindquist & Vennum, P.L.L.P., Minneapolis. The following order addresses Associated Bank’s motion in its entirety.

INTRODUCTION

In 2010, a large docket of avoidance litigation was commenced in the Chapter 11 cases of Debtors Petters Company, Inc. (“PCI”) and its related entities, to address the failure of the massive Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Thomas J. Petters through those companies. See, e.g., In re Petters Company, Inc., 494 B.R. 413, 495 B.R. 887, and 499 B.R. 342 (all Bankr.D.Minn.2013). This adversary proceeding was commenced during the first wave in that litigation.

However, in its pleaded factual basis this matter differs significantly from the bulk of the docket. In most of the adversary proceedings, the Trustee has sued parties that had lent to PCI, documented for the funding of commercial transactions that actually had been postured as a central part of the Ponzi scheme. As to those defendants, he seeks to recover all or a portion of PCI’s payback on that lending. Those proceedings were sued on the general theory that the payments to the defendants enabled the fraud on contemporaneous or later investor-lenders into the scheme.1 This, the Trustee asserts, eventually resulted in the vast (several-billion-[554]*554dollar) shortfall at the scheme’s collapse. In re Petters Company, Inc., 495 B.R. at 908.

As the Trustee pleads this matter, however, Associated Bank was not a transaction-specific lender roped into the scheme. The Trustee’s amended complaint [Dkt. No. 8] names Associated Bank as a depository bank through which PCI channeled a large number of monetary transfers from and to lender-investors and others over a five-year period, 2000-2005.2 Through it, the Trustee sues to reverse the legal effect of six identified, discrete events that occurred during that banking relationship.

The vocabulary for the fact-pleading on these events is somewhat opaque. This is particularly striking given the very specific structure of the banking relationship in which the transfers are alleged to have occurred. The Trustee uses the term “payments or other transfers,” made by PCI to the Bank, to describe these events. He lists them in an exhibit to the amended complaint. They are identified to separate dates between March 14, 2000 and October 3, 2002. He does not identify the transactional form in which the “payments” were made. It is clear, however, that the transfers were effected through PCI’s business checking account with the Bank, or at least in relation- to the account in some way. Amended Complaint, ¶40. The total of the “payments or other transfers” that would be avoided is stated as approximately $2.5 million.

The Trustee alleges that these “transfers” rectified prior “overdrafts” on the account—each one thus constituting “payment” on “a short-term open credit transaction.” He asserts that these “payments” were “in furtherance of’ the Ponzi scheme because they kept the account standard-compliant and open, thereby enabling PCI to maintain a functional tool for monetary transfers that was essential to the scheme’s operation. On that theory the Trustee brands the “transfers” as fraudulent and hence avoidable under law, as actually- or constructively-fraudulent.3

The fact-pleading for the Trustee’s theory of suit against Associated Bank is as follows.4

35. During the relevant time period, PCI maintained multiple bank accounts at Associated Bank (the “PCI Associated Bank Accounts”). [Tom] Petters and his Associates5 utilized the PCI Associ[555]*555ated Accounts to funnel investor funds through the Ponzi scheme.
36. Pursuant to the fraudulent mechanisms [of the scheme, Tom] Petters and his Associates funneled funds from various investors through the PCI Associated Bank Accounts and back to the investors at excessive rates of return. Daily transfers through the PCI Associated Bank Accounts ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000 were common, and transactions ranging from $l,000,000-$5,000,000 occurred occasionally. From 2000 through 2005, approximately $780 million was transferred in and subsequently out of the PCI Associated Bank Accounts.
37. On numerous occasions, [Tom] Petters and his Associates overdrew the PCI Associated Bank Accounts, thereby creating a debtor-creditor relationship between PCI and Associated Bank____
[T]he payments or other transfers total[] at least $2,539,337.37 that PCI made to pay off obligations owing pursuant to the Credit Transactions, or for the benefit of Associated Bank.6
38. In each of these instances, Associated Bank would lend PCI the funds necessary to cover the amount of the overdraft by way of a short-term open credit transaction (collectively, the “Credit Transactions”).7
39. Shortly thereafter following each of the Credit Transactions, PCI would make a payment to Associated Bank that would serve to repay the loan of the overdraft amount lent to PCI by Associated Bank.
40. Prior to the Petition Date, PCI made payments or other transfers totaling at least $2,539,337.37 to pay off obligations owing pursuant to the Credit Transactions, or for the benefit of Associated Bank (the “Negative Balance Transfers”).
41. On information and belief, the Negative Balance Transfers were made from funds derived from wholly fraudulent and fabricated financial transactions conducted in connection with the Ponzi scheme.
42. Associated Bank knew or should have known that it was benefiting from [556]*556fraudulent activity, or at a minimum, failed to exercise reasonable due diligence with respect to Petters and PCI in connection with the Ponzi scheme.
43. The Negative Balance Transfers consisted of substantial amounts of investors’ money that, instead of financing legitimate transactions, was used to pay back the Credit Transactions from Associated Bank. .

Amended Complaint, pp. 8-10.

MATTERS AT BAR

As its initial response to the Trustee’s complaint, Associated Bank filed a motion for dismissal. It raised several contentions with the Trustee’s pleading and his theory of suit. Dozens of other defendants on this docket did the same thing. Some of Associated Bank’s issues fell into the mainstream of the broader defense effort. They were addressed in the three “consolidated issues” memoranda [Dkt. Nos.1951, 2018, and 2044, formally cited supra at p. 553].

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Bluebook (online)
548 B.R. 551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelley-v-associated-bank-in-re-petters-co-mnb-2016.