From the "good idea" file:

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis (D. Minn.) has taken the initiative to set up a novel, dedicated webpage on the court's website to help keep investors informed about an alleged $190 million Ponzi scheme that may have impacted them.

The webpage (www.mnd.uscourts.gov/SEC-CFTC) helps the over 1,000 investors in the alleged scheme stay informed of the SEC's efforts to locate and recover the money allegedly lost to money managers Patrick J. Kiley and Trevor G. Cook. On November 23, 2009, the SEC sued Kiley and Cook in Judge Davis' court, alleging that from at least July 2006 through at least July 2009, Cook and Kiley

raised at least $190 million from at least 1,000 investors through the sale of unregistered investments in a purported foreign currency trading venture by misrepresenting that they would deposit each investor's funds into a separate account in the investor's name to trade in foreign currencies and generate annual returns of 10 percent to 12 percent.

Instead, however, the SEC alleges that

Cook and Kiley misappropriated $42.8 million of investors' money, including $18 million that Cook used to buy ownership interests in two trading firms; $12.8 million that Cook and Kiley transferred to Panama to purportedly finance the construction of a casino; $2.8 million that Cook used to acquire the Van Dusen Mansion and $4.8 million that Cook lost through gambling. Cook and Kiley also misspent approximately $51 million to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors. The SEC further alleges that Cook and Kiley placed $108 million of investors' funds into banking and trading accounts in the names of their various shell companies and used some of this money to trade foreign currencies, resulting in losses of at least $48 million.

The court's new webpage for the case provides an easy way for investors to track the progress of the court-appointed Receiver through its website, offers links to the case files and orders elsewhere on the court's website, and provides a direct link to all PACER files concerning the cases.