Stadium Watch Blog

Stadium executive Ted Mondale enmeshed in Petters federal Ponzi case

MSFA photo
Tom Petters
Tom Petters

The Strib's David Phelps is reporting that Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority executive director Ted Mondale is among the parties that may have to give back some of the money they got from convicted businessman Tom Petters.

The Strib reports that Mondale is being asked to give back $50,000 of a $150,000 personal loan from Petters.

Attorney Doug Kelley, appointed a trustee to recover some of the lost billions in the Petters case, said that Petters loaned the money to Mondale back in 2005. "Mondale signed a personal guarantee for that loan, and when I became receiver, I realized the loan had not been repaid," Kelley said."So we contacted Mr. Mondale and talked with him about repaying the loan, and he said he could not repay the full amount."

Kelley says his office looked over Mondale's financial statements and decided to settle for $50,000.

According to the Strib, Mondale worked for Petters from 1999 to 2003, when Mondale left to run a software startup. The paper also says that the startup got an early $750,000 investment from Petters.

ted-mondale
MSFA photo

Mondale was also chair of the Metropolitan Council from 1999 to 2002. He was appointed chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Authority by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2011, and played a leading role in the runup to last year's stadium legislation, signed in May. He was also Vice President of Strategy & Research for Greater MSP, a regional development non-profit.

Mondale didn't return a call about the Petters matter from MPR.

Petters was convicted of federal wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges in 2009. Prosecutors said he had been running a vast Ponzi scheme that took some $3.5 billion from investors. Petters was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2010.

Attorney Kelley also recovered $19 million from GE Capital, and $13.5 million from a Minneapolis law firm.