A seemingly despondent Tom Petters told his closest associates in September 2008 that their operation faced impending doom.
Jurors listened closely Monday as prosecutors played a secretly recorded tape in which Petters -- who is on trial for allegedly running a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme -- proclaims, "This is one big [expletive] fraud and I'm dealing with it."
At one point, Petters says it will take "magic to get out of this. I'm sick of it," he says. "I don't have any solutions."
Petters made his comments as auditors from a hedge fund were about to arrive at Petters Co. Inc. (PCI) to review the status of promissory notes that the fund had made under the assumption that it was investing in consumer electronic goods to sell to big-box retailers.
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"What are we going to give them?" Petters wonders aloud. "Empty hands?"
Petters' longtime confidante, Deanna Coleman, had agreed to wear a wire at the government's request a day before the Sept. 9 meeting with PCI's chief financial officer Robert White and Petters accountant James Wehmhoff.
At one point, Petters sounds both angry and frazzled.
"I can't put on a game face anymore. I can't. I'm done," he says.