Updated: 07/29/2009 3:02 PM KSTP.com | Print |  Email
By: Becky Nahm

Petters Associate Allowed to Leave Minn.

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A man who admitted to helping defraud investors through a multibillion Ponzi scheme, allegedly run by Tom Petters, will be allowed to leave Minnesota.

Michael Catain, requested changes to the conditions of his release, and the judge agreed.

Catain will be allowed to travel to California to be with his wife in San Luis Obispo.

He cannot travel anywhere else and he must surrender his passport. He must also check in regularly with a pretrial services officer.

Catain has already run afoul of prosecutors while out on bail once. He was sent back to jail after he was accused of skimming nearly $14,000 off his car wash business. However, in March a district court judge free Catain. The judge ruled that Catain did not take the money with criminal intent, so he should not be considered a flight risk.